Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
Inferior vena cava ultrasound (IVC-US) is a noninvasive bedside tool to assess intravascular volume status. This study set out to investigate the interrater reliability of IVC-US by bedside clinician sonographers and determine whether alternative methods of IVC-US such as B-mode and visual estimation are equally reliable to traditional M-mode. ⋯ Emergency physicians' US measurements of IVC diameter have a high degree of interrater reliability. IVC percent collapse by visual estimation or based on caliper measurements have lower, but still moderate to good reliability. The use of the visual estimation technique should be considered by clinicians who have learned to obtain measured parameters of IVC filling because it is equally reliable to traditional M-mode and can be performed more rapidly.
-
More than a decade ago, the city of Philadelphia began allowing police transport of penetrating trauma patients. ⋯ Although unadjusted mortality appears to be higher in PD subjects, these findings are explained by the more severely injured population transported by PD. The current practice of permitting police officers to transport penetrating trauma patients should be continued.