Wilderness & environmental medicine
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Wilderness Environ Med · Dec 2015
ReviewMedical Clearance for Desert and Land Sports, Adventure, and Endurance Events.
Endurance events are increasing in popularity in wilderness and remote settings, and participants face a unique set of potential risks for participation. The purpose of this article is to outline these risks and allow the practitioner to better guide the wilderness adventurer who is anticipating traveling to a remote or desert environment.
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Wilderness Environ Med · Sep 2015
Which Improvised Tourniquet Windlasses Work Well and Which Ones Won't?
Improvised tourniquets in first aid are recommended when no scientifically designed tourniquet is available. Windlasses for mechanical advantage can be a stick or pencil and can be used singly or multiply in tightening a tourniquet band, but currently there is an absence of empiric knowledge of how well such windlasses work. The purpose of the present study was to determine the performance of improvised tourniquets in their use by the type and number of windlasses to improve tourniquet practice. ⋯ A pair of chopsticks as an improvised tourniquet windlass worked better than pencils or craft sticks.
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Wilderness Environ Med · Sep 2015
A Chemical Heat Pack-Based Method For Consistent Heating of Intravenous Fluids.
Transfusion of cold intravenous fluids (IVF) can exacerbate hypothermia. Civilian and military guidelines recommend heated IVF for hypothermic patients; however, there is currently no ideal IVF heating system for use in resource-limited settings. ⋯ The IVF heating system described here reliably delivered physiologically appropriate temperature intravenous fluids in 2 of the 3 ambient treatment conditions. With the appropriate number of FRH for the ambient conditions, this system enables the delivery of warmed IVF to provide active warming, which may be clinically beneficial in the prevention and treatment of hypothermia.
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Wilderness Environ Med · Sep 2015
Case ReportsA Case Study: Rare Lepiota brunneoincarnata Poisoning.
Amatoxin poisoning from the genus Lepiota may have a deadly outcome, although this is not seen as often as it is from the genus Amanita. In this report, we present a patient who was poisoned by a sublethal dose of Lepiota brunneoincarnata mushrooms. The patient was hospitalized 12 hours after eating the mushrooms. ⋯ Using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography analysis, an uptake of approximately 19.9 mg of amatoxin from nearly 30 g of mushrooms was calculated. This consisted of 10.59 mg of α-amanitin, 9.18 mg of β-amanitin, and 0.16 mg of γ-amanitin. In conclusion, we present a patient from Turkey who was poisoned by L. brunneoincarnata mushrooms.