Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
-
A short-cut review was carried out to determine whether metoclopramide or prochlorperazine was better at relieving headache in patients attending the emergency department with acute migraine. Eighty-one papers were found using the reported searches, of which three 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 those best papers are shown in table 1. It is concluded that in adult patients presenting to the emergency department with acute migraine, prochlorperazine 10 mg is better than metoclopramide 10 mg at relieving headache.
-
Evaluating the quality of life of young adult survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is important as they are likely to have a longer life expectancy than older patients. The aim of this study was to assess their functional and quality of life outcomes. ⋯ The majority of survivors have good functional and quality of life outcomes. Telephone follow-up is feasible in the young adult survivors of cardiac arrest; loss to follow-up is common.
-
A short-cut review was carried out to determine whether protein S100B either alone or incorporated into clinical guidelines could be used to identify accurately those adults with mild head injury who had significant brain trauma. Thirty-five papers were found using the reported searches, of which nine 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 those best papers are shown in table 3. It is concluded that while S100B is a sensitive test for traumatic brain injury, there is no evidence to determine whether it adds value to any current clinical guidelines.
-
Ascertain recipients' level of satisfaction with humanitarian response efforts. ⋯ Access-limiting issues were rarely captured during routine monitoring and evaluation efforts and seem to be a significant predictor in dissatisfaction with relief efforts, at least in the case of Pakistan, another argument in favor of independent, population-based surveys of this kind. There is also need to better identify and serve those not residing in camps. Direct surveys of the affected population can be used operationally to assess ongoing needs, more appropriately redirect humanitarian resources, and ultimately, judge the overall quality of a humanitarian response.
-
The last decade has seen a vast amount of work directed at the investigation of patient harm events. Unfortunately, little of it has pertained to prehospital care and as such, risk remains unquantified and poorly understood in this setting. We hypothesised that adverse patient events occurring during the prehospital phase may fall into discernible patterns, and that an understanding of these patterns would be valuable in the development of mitigation strategies. ⋯ The deteriorating patient was identified as the leading single contributor to prehospital adverse events, and two perfect storm patient harm scenarios were found to contribute materially to adverse outcomes. This approach to identifying both single factors contributing to an incident and factors which could be grouped together in a pattern, appears useful in delineating risk in the acute prehospital setting, and warrants further exploration in this and other areas of patient safety.