Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Abuse of ambulance services is high, and there is concern among healthcare professionals that misuse of ambulances places stress on services, which may jeopardise patient care. This study aims to determine the proportion of people who correctly identify appropriate situations to call for an ambulance, and determine the characteristics of those most likely to call inappropriately. ⋯ The majority would call for an ambulance appropriately when a real emergency occurred, and most inappropriate classification occurs when an ambulance is not required.
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Animal studies describe cardiovascular collapse (CVC; hypotension or reoccurrence of cardiac arrest) after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) from cardiopulmonary arrest. Few studies describe CVC in humans. This study aimed to determine the occurrence of CVC in human out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest (OHCA). ⋯ In this series of treated OHCA, only a small fraction of patients experienced CVC after ROSC.
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Therapeutic hypothermia has proved effective in improving outcome in patients after cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation (VF). The benefit in patients with non-VF cardiac arrest is still not defined. ⋯ In this cohort patients undergoing hypothermia treatment after non-shockable cardiac arrest do not benefit significantly concerning neurological outcome. Hypothermia treatment needs to be evaluated in a large multicentre trial of cardiac arrest patients found initially to be in non-shockable rhythms to clarify whether cooling may also be beneficial for other rhythms than VF.
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The aim of this study was to test if Procalcitonin PCT value at the time of admission is a predictor of mortality and/or a diagnostic marker of concomitant infection in exertional heatstroke. ⋯ PCT value at the time of admission is an independent predictor of mortality, but maybe not a good indicator of concomitant infection in exertional heatstroke.
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This study attempted to identify any differences between the outcomes of patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) who were directly transported to Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and those who were stabilised initially at other hospitals in south-central Taiwan. ⋯ No differences in outcome were found between patients with isolated severe TBI who were directly transported and those transferred to this hospital's emergency room.