European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jun 2017
Expertise of German paramedics concerning the prehospital treatment of patients with spinal trauma.
Spinal immobilization is a standard procedure in emergency medicine. Increasing awareness of complications associated with immobilization of trauma patients leads to controversial discussions in the literature. Current guidelines require to include considerations of accident mechanism, an assessment of the patient's condition and an examination of the spine in the decision-making process if immobilization of the spine should be performed. This requires sound knowledge of assessing these parameters. The aim of the current study is to analyze German paramedics' subjective uncertainty in terms of their prehospital assessment and treatment of patients suffering from spine injuries. ⋯ Paramedics do not feel uncertain about the prehospital assessment and treatment of spinal injuries. The feeling of confidence in participants who had already attended a course on the treatment of trauma patients before was significantly higher.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jun 2017
Change in child mortality patterns after injuries in Sweden: a nationwide 14-year study.
Sweden has one of the world's lowest child injury mortality rates, but injuries are still the leading cause of death among children. Child injury mortality in the country has been declining, but this decline seems to decrease recently. Our objective was therefore to further examine changes in the mortality of children's death from injury over time and to assess the contribution of various effects on mortality. The underlying hypothesis for this investigation is that the incidence of lethal injuries in children, still is decreasing and that this may be sex specific. ⋯ Mortality patterns in injured children in Sweden have changed from being dominated by unintentional injuries to a more equal distribution between unintentional and intentional injuries as well as between sexes and the overall rate has declined further. These findings are important as they might contribute to the preventive work that is being done to further reduce mortality in injured children.