European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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To assess the accuracy of Senior House Officers at interpreting plain X-rays following their triage by radiographers in an emergency department. ⋯ Currently, the Senior House Officer contributes to the red dot system by improving on the radiographer in rates of diagnosis of both abnormal and normal X-rays. Further reductions in error rates, however, are unlikely to be achieved until there is a change to the existing system. This may ultimately involve removing some of the responsibility of X-ray interpretation from the Senior House Officer. Any future research should consider the methodological issues highlighted by this study.
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We describe a modified triage system used in managing a smoke inhalation mass casualty incident that we recently encountered at our community hospital. ⋯ These modified triage criteria, with selective use of fibre-optic examinations, chest radiography and arterial blood gas analyses with carboxyhaemoglobin levels, are useful in smoke inhalation mass casualty incidents without dermal burns. Systemic injury and poisoning by toxic fumes often coexist with airway burns and should not be overlooked. Lastly, disaster planning and frequent drills at both local and national levels will optimize the response to future mass casualty incidents.
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Cardiac contusion following blunt chest trauma is not rare, and the works in the literature report incidence rates between 5 and 50%. Traffic accidents are the most frequent cause of cardiac contusion followed by violent fall impacts, aggressions and the practice of risky sports. The spectrum of post-traumatic cardiac lesions varies greatly, ranging from no symptoms to decrease in cardiac function. ⋯ We review our experience of cardiac contusion after blunt chest trauma, and we describe two very severe cases that manifested as cardiogenic shock. We emphasize an early diagnosis by continuous electrocardiographic monitoring, serial electrocardiograms, echocardiography, serum determination of biochemical cardiac markers, radionuclide imaging and coronary angiography. The treatment includes continuous monitoring of cardiac rhythm, use of inotropic drugs, insertion of a catheter in the pulmonary artery for continuous assessment of cardiac output and, in extreme cases, the insertion of a contrapulsation balloon to maintain haemodynamics until improvement of cardiac function.
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Case Reports
Paradoxical reaction to epinephrine induced by beta-blockers in an anaphylactic shock induced by penicillin.
Increased risk of severe and resistant anaphylactic shock is a rare and not widely known adverse effect of beta-blocker treatment. It is illustrated in a case of refractory anaphylactic shock occurring in a 47-year-old woman who received beta-blockers. Actually, beta-blockers increase the release of anaphylactic mediators, decrease the cardiovascular compensatory changes to the anaphylactic shock and promote paradoxical reflex vagotonic effects when using epinephrine.
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Throughout the day, arrivals of patients at the emergency department (ED) are unannounced, unpredictable and fully determined by chance. Healthcare professionals in the ED naturally react as quickly as possible when patients arrive. We wondered whether they could somehow act in advance. ⋯ Implementation of the system at large was unsuccessful however. Changing the nature of the ED turned out to be far more difficult than expected. In our opinion, successfully planning emergency patients requires that the ED has full control over the referral process, and that scheduled patients are treated in a separate, undisturbed care process.