Scand J Trauma Resus
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2011
Comparative StudyOccupational affiliation does not influence practical skills in cardiopulmonary resuscitation for in-hospital healthcare professionals.
D-CPR (Defibrillator Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) is a technique for optimal basic life support during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Guidelines recommend that healthcare professionals can perform CPR with competence. How CPR training and provision is organized varies between hospitals, and it is our impression that in Sweden this has generally improved during the last 15-20 years. However, some hospitals still do not have any AED (Automated External Defibrillators). The aim was to investigate potential differences in practical skills between different healthcare professions before and after training in D-CPR. ⋯ Nearly all healthcare professionals learned to use the AED. There were no differences in CPR skill performances among the different healthcare professionals.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2011
The top five research priorities in physician-provided pre-hospital critical care: a consensus report from a European research collaboration.
Physician-manned emergency medical teams supplement other emergency medical services in some countries. These teams are often selectively deployed to patients who are considered likely to require critical care treatment in the pre-hospital phase. The evidence base for guidelines for pre-hospital triage and immediate medical care is often poor. We used a recognised consensus methodology to define key priority areas for research within the subfield of physician-provided pre-hospital critical care. ⋯ A modified nominal group technique was successfully used by a European expert group to reach consensus on the most important research priorities in physician-provided pre-hospital critical care.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2011
Implementation of a new emergency medical communication centre organization in Finland--an evaluation, with performance indicators.
There is a great variety in how emergency medical communication centers (EMCC) are organized in different countries and sometimes, even within countries. Organizational changes in the EMCC have often occurred because of outside world changes, limited resources and the need to control costs, but historically there is often a lack of structured evaluation of these organization changes. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the performance in emergency medical dispatching changed in a smaller community outside Helsinki after the emergency medical call centre organization reform in Finland. ⋯ After implementation of a new EMCC organization in Finland the percentage and number of high priority calls increased. There was a trend, but no statistically significant increase in the emergency medical dispatchers' ability to detect patients with life-threatening conditions despite structured education, regular evaluation and standardization of protocols in the new EMCC organization.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2011
The validity of the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale in predicting resource utilization and the need for immediate life-saving interventions in elderly emergency department patients.
We evaluated the validity of the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) in elderly emergency department (ED) patients. In particular, we examined the sensitivity and specificity of the CTAS for identifying elderly patients who received an immediate life-saving intervention in the ED. ⋯ The CTAS is a triage tool with high validity for elderly patients, and it is an especially useful tool for categorizing severity and for recognizing elderly patients who require immediate life-saving intervention.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2011
Comparative StudyTrends in transfusion of trauma victims--evaluation of changes in clinical practice.
The present study was performed to compare blood product consumption and clinical results in consecutive, unselected trauma patients during the first 6 months of year 2002, 2004 and 2007. ⋯ Significant changes of transfusion practice occurred during the past decade, probably as a result of increased focus on haemostasis and more precise criteria for transfusion. Despite a lower consumption of erythrocytes in 2007 than in 2002 and 2004, the mean haemoglobin level of transfused patients was higher on day 10 in 2007. The low number of transfused patients in this material makes evaluation of effect on survival difficult. Larger studies with strict control of all influencing factors are needed.