Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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A short cut review was carried out to establish whether incision and drainage followed by treatment with oral trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole is better than incision and drainage alone at treating patients with uncomplicated skin abscesses. One hundred and ninety-seven 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 these papers are tabulated. It is concluded that trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole may help with abscess cure, and will decrease abscess formation at new sites.
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Many previous studies have shown that patients admitted to hospital at weekends have worse outcomes than those on other days. It has been proposed that parity of clinical services throughout the week could mitigate the 'weekend effect'. This study aimed to determine whether or not a weekend effect is observed within an all-hours consultant-led major trauma service. ⋯ After adjustment for known confounders the weekend effect is not detectable within a regionalised major trauma service.
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In the year 1966, important advances in mobile coronary care and trauma care in the UK and USA influenced globally the development of modern prehospital emergency services and paramedic education. In that year, to meet the evolving role of prehospital care in the UK, the 'Millar Report' specified a new syllabus for ambulance personnel in England. As the 50th anniversary of this report approaches, this paper reviews key national UK reports to describe the development of paramedic education in England over this period. ⋯ Political reform agendas and initiatives and advances in clinical medicine largely shaped paramedic roles and education in England. The degree to which the paramedic profession initiated education development is difficult to determine from the literature. Overall, a nationally coherent standard for paramedic education in England needed five decades to develop and mature.