World journal of emergency medicine
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Numerous drugs have been proposed to alleviate pain in patients with biliary colic, especially opioids, but still there is a tendency to use less narcotics because of their side effects and the unwillingness of some patients. The present study aimed to compare the analgesic effect of paracetamol combined with low-dose morphine versus morphine alone in patients with biliary colic. ⋯ Paracetamol combined with low-dose morphine may be effective for pain management in patients with biliary colic.
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Point-of-care ultrasound (US) is a proven diagnostic imaging tool in the emergency department (ED). Modern US devices are now more compact, affordable and portable, which has led to increased usage in austere environments. However, studies supporting the use of US in the prehospital setting are limited. The primary outcome of this pilot study was to determine if paramedics could perform cardiac ultrasound in the field and obtain images that were adequate for interpretation. A secondary outcome was whether paramedics could correctly identify cardiac activity or the lack thereof in cardiac arrest patients. ⋯ Our pilot study suggests that with minimal training, paramedics can use US to obtain cardiac images that are adequate for interpretation and diagnose cardiac standstill. Further large-scale clinical trials are needed to determine if prehospital US can be used to guide care for patients with cardiac complaints.
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The Broselow™ Pediatric Emergency Tape indicates standardized, pre-calculated medication doses, dose delivery volumes, and equipment sizes using color-coded zones based on height-weight correlations. The present study attempted to provide more evidence on the effectiveness of the Broselow™ Pediatric Emergency Tape by comparing the tape-estimated weights with actual weights. We hypothesized that the Broselow™ Pediatric Emergency Tape would overestimate weights in Indian children aged<10 years, leading to inaccurate dosing and equipment sizing in the emergency setting. ⋯ The Broselow™ Pediatric Emergency Tape showed good evidence for being more reliable in children of the <10 kg and 10-18 kg groups. However, as pediatric weight increased, predictive reliability decreased. This raises concerns over the use of the Broselow™ Pediatric Emergency Tape in Indian children because body weight was overestimated in those weighing >18 kg.
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Communication failure in prehospital emergency medicine can affect patient safety as it does in other areas of medicine as well. We analyzed the database of the critical incident reporting system for prehospital emergency medicine in Germany retrospectively regarding communication errors. ⋯ Communication deficits can lead to critical incidents in prehospital emergency medicine and are a very important aspect in patient safety.
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The study aimed to compare the time to overall length of stay (LOS) for patients who underwent point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) versus radiology department ultrasound (RDUS). ⋯ In patients who require pelvic ultrasound as part of their diagnostic evaluation, POCUS resulted in a significant decrease in time to ultrasound and ED LOS.