Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Comparison of perceived pain with different immobilization techniques.
To compare the locations and severities of pain generated by a hard wooden spine board vs a soft vacuum mattress splint on immobilized volunteers. ⋯ The hard-board method of spinal immobilization generates higher self-reported pain scale scores than the two vacuum mattresses.
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To determine the locations of nonresidential out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) in the City of Pittsburgh and to determine whether there are "high-risk" locations that might benefit from placement of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). ⋯ The majority of nonresidential OHCAs occur as singular, isolated events. Other than nursing homes and dialysis centers, there were no identifiable high-risk locations for nonresidential OHCA within the City of Pittsburgh.
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There is little published evidence to support the benefits of prehospital drug administration by ambulance personnel in reducing subsequent hospital utilization by the medical patients receiving such drugs. The authors studied the outcome of patients treated by Ontario's Emergency Health Services "Symptom Relief Drug Program," which was developed to relieve patient symptoms in the field for specific medical emergencies. ⋯ The lower rate of admissions for chest pain patients is the first published evidence of prehospital drug treatment's reducing hospital utilization in a sub-group of such medical patients. The "Symptom Relief Drug Program" is effective in improving patients' field conditions and can decrease ED LOS in hypoglycemic persons receiving glucagon injections. More outcome research pertaining to ambulance-administered prehospital drug treatment is warranted.