Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Prehospital hypoglycemia is usually treated with oral or intravenous (IV) dextrose in a variety of concentrations. In the absence of vascular access, intramuscular (IM) glucagon is commonly administered. Occupational needle-stick injury remains a significant risk while attempting to obtain vascular access or administer medications intramuscularly in the prehospital setting. We sought to determine if intranasal (IN) glucagon is effective in the prehospital treatment of hypoglycemia. ⋯ Intranasal administration of recombinant glucagon for hypoglycemia resulted in a clinically significant improvement in mental status and a corresponding increase in blood glucose levels in select cases in the prehospital setting.
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First responder (FR) cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an important component of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) care. However, little is known about FR CPR disparities. ⋯ While we identified disparities in FR CPR in low SES and majority Black census tracts, we identified no association between FR CPR and survival in Texas.
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Observational Study
Association between mode of transport and patient outcomes in the emergency department following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a single-center retrospective study.
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) remains a health problem worldwide, carrying a high mortality rate. Comparison of emergency department (ED) return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after OHCA in relation to emergency medical services (EMS) and non-EMS modes of transportation to the hospital was conducted to assess the impact points of the EMS system in Thailand. ⋯ In our cohort data of OHCA, ED-sustained ROSC and ED survival outcomes were not superior in the EMS transportation group. Evidence to show that EMS transportation affected 30-day survival and 30-day good CPC score was also lacking. Thus, public promotion of Thailand's EMS system is advocated with a simultaneous improvement of EMS response to enhance OHCA outcomes.
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Evidence-based guidelines that provide recommendations for clinical care or operations are increasingly being published to inform the EMS community. The quality of evidence evaluation and methodological rigor undertaken to develop and publish these recommendations vary. This can negatively affect dissemination, education, and implementation efforts. ⋯ In this special contribution, we aim to describe the current state of published guidelines available to the EMS community informed by two recent systematic reviews of existing prehospital evidenced based guidelines (EBGs). We further aim to provide a description of key elements of EBGs, methods that can be used to assess their quality, and concrete recommendations for guideline developers to improve the quality of evidence evaluation, guideline development, and reporting. Finally, we outline six key recommendations for improving prehospital EBGs, informed by systematic reviews of prehospital guidelines performed by the Prehospital Guidelines Consortium.
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Access of intraosseous (IO) compartments is a commonly used technique that is an invaluable asset in emergency resuscitation. Prehospital IO success rates using semi-automatic insertion devices vary between 70 and 100% of pediatric patients. There are limited data on time to insertion and duration of IO function in the prehospital setting. Recent studies limited to the pediatric emergency department (PED) setting have also suggested that IOs may be less successful in the infant population. We explored the use of IO access for pediatric resuscitation, encompassing the prehospital and pediatric emergency department (PED) settings. ⋯ This is the first study to provide time to IO access and IO duration in the prehospital setting, and the first prehospital evidence to suggest inferior IO function in infants <1 year old, compared to other ages. This highlights unique challenges for infants that have implications for the PED, interfacility transport, and critical care settings.