Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Blackthorn (Prunus spinosus), a member of Rosacea family is well known for causing infections and tissue reactions of synovial structures. Three interesting cases of cystic blackthorn granuloma, blackthorn synovitis with digital nerve entrapment, and multiple blackthorn syndrome are presented. Removal of foreign body fragments and surrounding reactive tissues resulted in an uneventful recovery with full return of joint and tendon functions.
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Currently, an emergency ambulance is dispatched to all cardiac arrest victims. This study aimed to determine the outcome of patients with a dispatch code of 09B01 ("obvious death") and considers the appropriateness of dispatching a non-emergency response. ⋯ Not all patients coded 09B01 by dispatchers are assessed as "dead beyond resuscitation" by attending ambulance crews. Although poor data recovery and a small sample size limited the study, its findings suggest that it is inappropriate to allocate a non-emergency response to 09B01 (obvious death) calls.
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To identify those attributes experts regard as desirable qualities in the ambulance technician, paramedic, and clinical supervisor. ⋯ There was significant agreement among the experts as to the desirable attributes of ambulance staff, many of which do not feature in existing ambulance training curriculums. The findings of this study may therefore be of value in informing future curriculum development and in providing guidance for the selection of staff for each of the occupational groups.
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A short cut review was carried out to establish whether needle aspiration was an alternative to incision and drainage in the management of breast abscess. Altogether 63 papers were found using the reported search, of which six presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these best papers are tabulated. A clinical bottom line is stated.