European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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Observational Study
Trauma in the elderly in Trinidad and Tobago: a cross-sectional study.
Little is known about trauma in the elderly in the developing world. This study compared injuries in older patients with those in younger adults in a Third World setting. This was a prospective observational study of trauma admissions to a tertiary hospital in Trinidad, comparing injury characteristics and patient outcomes in older versus younger adults. ⋯ Trauma in the elderly in Trinidad is similar to that in the developed world. Public health measures in developing countries should be aimed at preventing falls in older persons. The burden of trauma in the elderly is likely to increase in developing countries as the population ages.
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Adherence to prehospital guidelines and protocols is suboptimal. Insight into influencing factors is necessary to improve adherence. The aim of this study was to identify factors that influence ambulance nurses' adherence to a National Protocol Ambulance Care (NPAC). ⋯ Ambulance nurses' self-reported adherence to the NPAC seems high. To improve adherence, protocol characteristics (complexity, the degree of support for diagnosis and treatment, the relationship of the protocol with patient outcomes) and social influences (expectance of colleagues to work with the national protocol) should be addressed.
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This is a systematic review of the literature to compare the efficacy of calcium channel blockers to β-blockers for acute rate control of atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response in the emergency department setting. PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Registry were searched. Relative risk (95% confidence interval) was calculated between drugs and methodological quality of included studies was evaluated. ⋯ These were randomized double-blinded studies (n=92) comparing intravenous diltiazem with intravenous metoprolol. The combined relative risk of acute rate control by diltiazem versus metoprolol was 1.8 (95% confidence interval 1.2-2.6). On the basis of the paucity of available evidence, diltiazem may be more effective than metoprolol in achieving rapid rate control, but high-quality randomized studies are needed.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Can today's house officers teach effectively? An assessment in undergraduate emergency training.
Previous publications describe house officers (HOs) as unaware of their ineffective teaching skills. ⋯ From a learner's perspective, the quality of teaching provided by HOs was rated at least similar and mostly better overall than that provided by faculty. These findings contradict results from previous studies on the quality of HO teaching and therefore warrant further assessment.
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Observational Study
Can emergency medicine practitioners predict disposition of psychiatric patients based on a brief medical evaluation?
Emergency medicine practitioners (EMPs) often provide 'medical clearance' before evaluation by a psychiatry practitioner (PP). We set out to determine the level of agreement between EMP impression and disposition as determined by PPs. ⋯ EMPs did not reliably predict psychiatric disposition decisions based on clinical 'gestalt'. Future research will focus on clinical guidelines to help EMPs better independently assess need for emergency psychiatric services.