Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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A shortcut review was carried out to establish whether steroids prevent biphasic anaphylactic reactions in children. Seven papers were directly relevant to the question. ⋯ The clinical bottom line is that there are no trials to show that steroids prevent biphasic reactions. However, there are other grounds for using them in anaphylactic reactions and they are still recommended in guidelines.
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Only a few cardiac-arrest victims receive external chest compression (ECC) by a bystander. ⋯ The better 'advantages over disadvantages' score for the automated ECC device over manual ECC indicated that the general public might envisage use of the device. This could contribute to increase the frequency of resuscitation attempts by bystanders.
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Effective pain management in the prehospital setting is gaining momentum as a potential key performance indicator by many emergency medical service systems, but historically has been shown to be inadequate, particularly in the paediatric population. This study aimed to identify the barriers, as perceived by a national cohort of advanced paramedics (APs), to achieving optimal prehospital management of acute pain in children. ⋯ The pathway to improving care must include an emphasis on improvements in practitioner education and training, offering alternatives to assessing pain in preverbal children, exploring the intranasal route of drug delivery in managing acute severe pain, and robustly developed evidence-based guidelines that are practitioner friendly and patient-focused.
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Cranial CT is the gold standard for the investigation of intracranial emergencies. The aim of this pilot study was to audit whether senior emergency physicians were able to report CT head scans accurately and reliably having attended structured teaching. ⋯ In conclusion, we feel that this model can be employed as a safe and long-term alternative provided that the radiology department are committed to providing ongoing teaching and that a database is maintained to highlight problem areas. Emergency physicians need to remember that the clinical status of the patient must never be ignored, irrespective of their CT head findings.