South African medical journal = Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir geneeskunde
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South African emergency centres witness high levels of trauma. Successfully managing a compromised trauma airway requires considerable skill and expertise. In the rural healthcare setting, clinics and hospitals are often staffed by junior doctors without formal advanced airway training. ⋯ We therefore propose a simplified guideline for the rural hospital practitioner. Our algorithm offers a step-by-step approach, with the aim of providing an easy sequence to follow that will ensure successful airway management and patient safety. The lack of advanced airway equipment in most rural hospitals is taken into consideration.
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To describe the use of intravenous (IV) therapy in the South African (SA) prehopsital setting, and to determine the proportion of prehopsital cannulations considered unnecessary when graded against the South African Triage Score (SATS) chart. ⋯ In view of the paucity of studies indicating a direct benefit of out-of-hospital IV intervention, the practice of precautionary, protocol-driven prophylactic establishment of IV access should be evaluated. Current data suggest that in the absence of scientific evidence, IV access should only be initiated when it will benefit the patient immediately, and precautionary IV access, especially in non-injured patients, should be re-evaluated.
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To establish the prevalence and determinants of the 10-year risk of a cardiovascular disease (CVD) event in 25 - 74-year-old black Africans in Cape Town, South Africa, using Framingham laboratory- and non-laboratory-based and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) I non-laboratory-based equations. ⋯ Comparability of laboratory- and non-laboratory-based CVD risk estimates illustrates the utility of the latter in resource-constrained settings.