Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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A short cut review was carried out to establish whether smectite was a useful therapy in acute diarrhoea. A total of 21 papers were found of which five 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. The clinical bottom line is that oral smectite appears to be effective at shortening the duration of the diarrhoea in children with acute diarrhoea rehydrated with oral rehydration solution.
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Review Meta Analysis
Potential cervical spine injury and difficult airway management for emergency intubation of trauma adults in the emergency department--a systematic review.
Emergency airway management for trauma adults is practised by physicians from a range of training backgrounds and with differing levels of experience. The indications for intubation and technique employed are factors that vary within EDs and between hospitals. ⋯ Full literature search for relevant articles in Medline (1966-2003), EMBASE (1980-2003), and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Relevant articles relating to adults and written in English language were appraised. English language abstracts of foreign articles were included. Studies were critically appraised on a standardised data collection sheet to assess validity and quality of evidence. The level of evidence was allocated using the methods of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
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We describe a lethal poisoning in a healthy woman caused by deliberate ingestion of aluminium phosphide (AlP), a pesticide used to kill rodents and insects. Toxicity of AlP and review of cases reported to the National Poisons Information Service (London) 1997-2003 are discussed.
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In 2004 the Argyll and Clyde health board established the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service to support its rural community hospitals. This article describes both why the service was established and its aims. This service covers a geographically extensive area, with approximately 85,000 people living in remote locations. ⋯ The idea of the team is to bring the resuscitation room to the patient in the rural setting. With this aim and in order to implement the Intensive Care Society guidelines for the transport of critically ill patients, it was decided that consultants in Emergency Medicine and Anaesthetics with an interest in critical care would staff the service medically. This service is unique within the UK and the authors aim to report our findings from ongoing research and audit in future papers.