Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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On 4 July 2000, two workshops on handling emergencies in rural areas of Europe were held at the WONCA (World Organisation of National Colleges and Academies of Family Medicine/General Practice) conference in Vienna under the auspices of EURIPA (European Rural and Isolated Practitioners' Association). Papers submitted covered varying patterns of service provision and examples of short intensive training for emergencies at resident and general practitioner levels. ⋯ The workshops concluded that there was a need for more research in the application of emergency skills, that lack of confidence in dealing with emergencies may contribute to recruitment problems, and that further work towards a document detailing training requirements for emergencies was needed. This will be developed at a EURIPA workshop at WONCA in Tampere, June 2001.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The use of pre-cannulation local anaesthetic and factors affecting pain perception in the emergency department setting.
To determine whether the use of subcutaneous local anaesthetic (lignocaine) is associated with a reduction in cannulation pain in the emergency department setting. ⋯ The use of lignocaine before cannulation reduced cannulation pain in the emergency department setting. Other factors examined did not influence pain perception.
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To assess whether measuring plasma paracetamol concentrations in all patients with drug overdose or collapse (altered consciousness) changes outcome. ⋯ This is the first study in the United Kingdom to evaluate the clinical value of routine paracetamol levels in patients presenting to the emergency department after any overdose or a collapse. Taking blood samples for plasma paracetamol estimation in patients who deny taking paracetamol is of little clinical value. However, there is the potential for missing significant paracetamol poisoning in patients presenting with collapse and so screening with a plasma paracetamol concentration is clinically justified in these patients. Such an approach can only be justified in a country in which paracetamol poisoning is prevalent, such as the United Kingdom.