Articles: emergency-medicine.
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Editorial Comment
Life or death: physician-assisted suicide and emergency medicine.
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Pediatric emergency care · Oct 1996
ReviewThe laryngeal mask airway: a review for the emergency physician.
The laryngeal mask airway has recently been released as a adjunct to airway management. It has gained widespread acceptance as an alternative to the face mask for the provision of general anesthesia. The LMA is available in various sizes for use in every age and weight patient (Table 1). ⋯ While it is used frequently in the operating room as a replacement for the anesthesia mask, its role outside of the operating room may include an adjunct in the management of the difficult airway. In this setting it may be used as a guide to blind endotracheal intubation or for fiberoptic-guided intubation. More importantly, it may be life-saving in the cannot intubate/cannot ventilate scenario.
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To evaluate the diagnostic utility of abdominal diagnostic ultrasonography (DUS) performed by emergency physicians for intraperitoneal fluid caused by blunt abdominal trauma (BAT). ⋯ Emergency physicians with minimal training can use DUS with fair sensitivity and good specificity and accuracy to detect free intraperitoneal fluid in both pediatric and adult BAT victims. The hepatorenal view provides the highest sensitivity for intraperitoneal fluid, although the 3-view series (with hepatorenal, bladder-rectal, and splenorenal spaces) can typically be performed within 5 minutes and may increase the specificity and accuracy.