Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Emergency physician (EP)-performed focused cardiac ultrasound (EP FOCUS) has been increasingly recognized as a crucial tool to help clinicians diagnose and treat potentially life-threatening conditions. The existing literature demonstrates a variety of EP FOCUS applications and protocols; however, EP FOCUS is not taught, practiced, or interpreted consistently between institutions. ⋯ Each of these assessments has been well described in the emergency medicine literature and is within the scope of EP-performed echocardiography. This approach provides a reliable and easily recalled framework for assessing, teaching, and communicating EP FOCUS findings that are essential in caring for the patient in the emergency setting.
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The 2014 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa has presented a significant public health crisis to the international health community and challenged U. S. emergency departments (EDs) to prepare for patients with a disease of exceeding rarity in developed nations. With the presentation of patients with Ebola to U. ⋯ This paper will address areas of immediate and potential ethical concern to U. S. EDs in how they approach preparation for and management of potential patients with EVD.
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The objective was to analyze the cardiac arrest rhythms presenting during asphyxial cardiac arrest (ACA). ⋯ The most common rhythm after 4 minutes of untreated ACA was VF, while in 57% of animals, PEA was spontaneously converted to VF during the cardiac arrest interval.