European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Prehospital management and outcome of avalanche patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a retrospective study in Tyrol, Austria.
The aim of this study is to describe the prehospital management and outcome of avalanche patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Tyrol, Austria, for the first time since the introduction of international guidelines in 1996. ⋯ CPR is continued to hospital admission in patients with short burial and asphyxial cardiac arrest, but withheld or terminated at the scene in patients with long burial and possible hypothermic cardiac arrest. Insufficient transfer of information from the accident site to the hospital may partially explain the poor outcome of avalanche victims with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated with emergency cardiac care.
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Comparative Study
Characteristics and outcome of patients presenting to the emergency department after autologous/allogeneic stem cell transplantation.
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantations are still associated with a high risk of complications. Here, we characterize patients after autologous or allogeneic transplantation presenting to the emergency department and investigate factors associated with patients' outcome after hospitalization. ⋯ Radiologic signs of pneumonia were associated independently with worse clinical outcomes including hospitalization, the need for ICU treatment, and death.
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A commonly cited reason for the infrequent detection of cognitive impairment in the Emergency Department (ED) is the lack of an appropriate screening tool. The Abbreviated Mental Test 4 (AMT4) is a brief instrument recommended for cognitive screening of older adults in the ED. However, its exact utility in the detection of altered mental status in the ED is yet to be fully determined. ⋯ The present study found that the limited sensitivity of the AMT4 in identifying the majority of cognitively impaired persons restricts its use in isolation as a general cognitive screener in the ED.
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Use of automated systems to aid identification of patient deterioration in routine hospital practice is limited and their impact on patient outcomes remains unclear. This study was designed to evaluate the feasibility of implementing an electronic observation chart with automated early warning score (EWS) calculation in the high-acuity area of an emergency department. ⋯ In this study, the feasibility and limitations of implementing an electronic observation chart in the ED were demonstrated. Accurate EWS documentation was more frequent after implementation of the electronic observation chart. Retrospective analysis suggests that the use of an electronic observation system may lead to a greater percentage of observations being taken from those patients with a higher EWS.