European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The impact of television fiction on public expectations of survival following inhospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation by medical professionals.
Research has shown that the public overestimates the survival chances of patients after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Other studies have suggested that demonstrably exaggerated survival rates in medical television fiction might affect these estimates. Such studies were mostly conducted in the United States, dealt with cardiopulmonary resuscitation in general, and asked respondents to indicate their source of medical information, an unreliable survey technique. ⋯ The consumption of medical television drama is related to overestimating survival chances after inhospital resuscitation by physicians and nurses following cardiopulmonary arrest. A practical knowledge of basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation techniques moderates but does not eliminate the television effect.
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This prospective observational study was designed to shed light on the routine use of a hypertonic hyperoncotic solution for prehospital small-volume resuscitation in trauma patients. Effects on homeostasis and haemodynamics as well as safety were evaluated. ⋯ Per-protocol bolus infusions of hypertonic hyperoncotic solution containing hydroxyethyl starch do not compromise homeostasis clinically and are rarely associated with clinically manifest side-effects. The treatment regimens used (including small-volume resuscitation) provide early and effective haemodynamic control.
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To describe the non-traumatic clinical settings in which abdominal computed tomography (CT) is used and to determine its diagnostic utility. ⋯ Adult ED patients undergo abdominal CT for a variety of non-traumatic indications. Findings in less than half support the pre-test clinical suspicion and an alternative previously unsuspected diagnosis is suggested in 13%. Follow-up is inconsistent with CT results in a small but significant number of cases.
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Each year, thousands of people are strangled. Survival from strangulation or hanging is often associated with various complications including a large variety of neurological consequences. As it is common knowledge that the GCS and other initial presenting findings bear a poor correlation to the ultimate outcome, aggressive resuscitation and treatment of post anoxic brain injury is indicated in every patient in absence of definite signs of death and irrespective of the duration of hypoxia or unconsciousness in cases of strangulation, especially in cases of suicidal near-hanging. These case reports describe two near-hanging episodes in patients with a normal neurological outcome.