Articles

Use of intrathoracic pressure regulation therapy in breathing patients for the treatment of hypotension secondary to trauma

Intrathoracic pressure regulation (IPR) therapy has been shown to increase blood pressure in hypotensive patients. The potential value of this therapy in patients with hypotension secondary to trauma with blee...

Authors: Victor A. Convertino, Brent A. Parquette, David A. Wampler, Craig A. Manifold, David A. Lindstrom, Lori L. Boland, Nathan T. Burkhart, Keith G. Lurie and Charles J. Lick

EMT-led laryngeal tube vs. face-mask ventilation during cardiopulmonary resuscitation - a multicenter prospective randomized trial

Laryngeal tube (LT) application by rescue personnel as an alternate airway during the early stages of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is still subject of debate. We evaluated ease of handling and efficac...

Authors: Anna Fiala, Wolfgang Lederer, Agnes Neumayr, Tamara Egger, Sabrina Neururer, Ernst Toferer, Michael Baubin and Peter Paal

Erratum to: Shock in the emergency department; a 12 year population based cohort study

Authors: Jon Gitz Holler, Daniel Pilsgaard Henriksen, Søren Mikkelsen, Lars Melholt Rasmussen, Court Pedersen and Annmarie Touborg Lassen

Common intensive care scoring systems do not outperform age and glasgow coma scale score in predicting mid-term mortality in patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage treated in the intensive care unit

Intensive care scoring systems are widely used in intensive care units (ICU) around the world for case-mix adjustment in research and benchmarking. The aim of our study was to investigate the usefulness of com...

Authors: Marika Fallenius, Markus B. Skrifvars, Matti Reinikainen, Stepani Bendel and Rahul Raj

Specialist advice may improve patient selection for decompression therapy following diving accidents: a retrospective observational study

Even in a landlocked country like Switzerland recreational diving is becoming more and more popular. Smaller lakes in the Alps are located at an altitude of 2500 m above sea level. The incidence of diving acci...

Authors: Daniel Steffensmeier, Roland Albrecht, Jürg Wendling, Roger Melliger, Donat R. Spahn, Philipp Stein and Christophe Wyss

Post-trauma morbidity, measured as sick leave, is substantial and influenced by factors unrelated to injury: a retrospective matched observational cohort study

Mortality as an endpoint has been the focus of trauma research whereas few studies investigate long-term outcomes in terms of morbidity. An adequate analysis of post-injury morbidity includes several dimension...

Authors: Erik von Oelreich, Mikael Eriksson, Olof Brattström, Andrea Discacciati, Lovisa Strömmer, Anders Oldner and Emma Larsson

The impact of early thromboelastography directed therapy in trauma resuscitation

Conventional coagulation tests do not provide an accurate representation of the complex nature of trauma induced coagulopathy. Thrombelastography provides a prompt global overview of all dynamic sequential asp...

Authors: Mohamed Mohamed, Karl Majeske, Gul R. Sachwani, Kristin Kennedy, Mina Salib and Michael McCann

Intoxication with GHB/GBL: characteristics and trends from ambulance-attended overdoses

Overdoses from so-called “club drugs” (GHB/GBL) have become a more frequent cause of overdoses attended by ambulance services. Given its availability, affordability, and lack of awareness of risks, there is a ...

Authors: Desiree Madah-Amiri, Lars Myrmel and Guttorm Brattebø

Factors influencing on-scene time in a rural Norwegian helicopter emergency medical service: a retrospective observational study

Critically ill patients need to be immediately identified, properly managed, and rapidly transported to definitive care. Extensive prehospital times may increase mortality in selected patient groups. The on-sc...

Authors: Øyvind Østerås, Jon-Kenneth Heltne, Bjørn-Christian Vikenes, Jörg Assmus and Guttorm Brattebø

Barriers and facilitators towards implementing the Sepsis Six care bundle (BLISS-1): a mixed methods investigation using the theoretical domains framework

The ‘Sepsis 6’, a care bundle of basic, but vital, measures (e.g. intravenous fluid, antibiotics) has been implemented to improve sepsis treatment. However, uptake has been variable. Tools from behavioral scie...

Authors: Neil Roberts, Guy Hooper, Fabiana Lorencatto, Wendell Storr and Michael Spivey

Neurological outcomes and duration from cardiac arrest to the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a retrospective study

We investigated the relationship between neurological outcomes and duration from cardiac arrest (CA) to the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) (CA-to-ECMO) in patients with out-of-hospita...

Authors: Takahiro Yukawa, Masahiro Kashiura, Kazuhiro Sugiyama, Takahiro Tanabe and Yuichi Hamabe

Physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service has a beneficial impact on the incidence of prehospital hypoxia and secured airways on patients with severe traumatic brain injury

After traumatic brain injury (TBI), hypotension, hypoxia and hypercapnia have been shown to result in secondary brain injury that can lead to increased mortality and disability. Effective prehospital assessmen...

Authors: Toni Pakkanen, Antti Kämäräinen, Heini Huhtala, Tom Silfvast, Jouni Nurmi, Ilkka Virkkunen and Arvi Yli-Hankala

The effect of a national web course “Help-Brain-Heart” as a supplemental learning tool before CPR training: a cluster randomised trial

The effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) learning methods is unclear. Our aim was to evaluate whether a web course before CPR training, teaching the importance of recognition of symptoms of str...

Authors: Anette Nord, Leif Svensson, Andreas Claesson, Johan Herlitz, Håkan Hult, Susanne Kreitz-Sandberg and Lennart Nilsson

Intraosseous blood samples for point-of-care analysis: agreement between intraosseous and arterial analyses

Point-of-care (POC) testing is highly useful when treating critically ill patients. In case of difficult vascular access, the intraosseous (IO) route is commonly used, and blood is aspirated to confirm the cor...

Authors: Milla Jousi, Simo Saikko and Jouni Nurmi

The most commonly used disease severity scores are inappropriate for risk stratification of older emergency department sepsis patients: an observational multi-centre study

Sepsis recognition in older emergency department (ED) patients is difficult due to atypical symptom presentation. We therefore investigated whether the prognostic and discriminative performance of the five mos...

Authors: Bas de Groot, Frank Stolwijk, Mats Warmerdam, Jacinta A. Lucke, Gurpreet K. Singh, Mo Abbas, Simon P. Mooijaart, Annemieke Ansems, Laura Esteve Cuevas and Douwe Rijpsma

Fatal poisonings in Northern Finland: causes, incidence, and rural-urban differences

In this study we evaluate differences between rural and urban areas in the causes and incidence of fatal poisonings.

Authors: Lauri Koskela, Lasse Raatiniemi, Håkon Kvåle Bakke, Tero Ala-Kokko and Janne Liisanantti

We need support! A Delphi study about desirable support during the first year in the emergency medical service

New and inexperienced emergency medical service (EMS) professionals lack important experience. To prevent medical errors and improve retention there is an urgent need to identify ways to support new profession...

Authors: Anna Hörberg, Maria Jirwe, Susanne Kalén, Veronica Vicente and Veronica Lindström

Psychosocial risk and protective factors for the health and well-being of professionals working in emergency and non-emergency medical transport services, identified via questionnaires

Medical transport (MT) professionals are subject to considerable emotional demands due to their involvement in life-or-death situations and their exposure to the serious health problems of their clients. An in...

Authors: P. Navarro Moya, M. González Carrasco and E. Villar Hoz

Does the applied polytrauma definition notably influence outcome and patient population? – a retrospective analysis

Although the term “polytrauma” has been in use for decades, no generally accepted definition exists. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that different polytrauma definitions applied to a specific patient...

Authors: Stephan Frenzel, Philipp Krenn, Thomas Heinz and Lukas Leopold Negrin

Daily volume of cases in emergency call centers: construction and validation of a predictive model

Variations in the activity of emergency dispatch centers are an obstacle to the rationalization of resource allocation. Many explanatory factors are well known, available in advance and could predict the volum...

Authors: Damien Viglino, Aurelien Vesin, Stephane Ruckly, Xavier Morelli, Rémi Slama, Guillaume Debaty, Vincent Danel, Maxime Maignan and Jean-François Timsit

Early post-traumatic seizures are associated with valproic acid plasma concentrations and UGT1A6/CYP2C9 genetic polymorphisms in patients with severe traumatic brain injury

Seizure is a common complication for severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Valproic acid (VPA) is a first-line antiepileptic drug, though its metabolism is affected by genetic polymorphisms and varies between i...

Authors: Yirui Sun, Jian Yu, Qiang Yuan, Xing Wu, Xuehai Wu and Jin Hu

Maintaining immobilisation devices on trauma patients during CT: a feasibility study

To reduce the possibility of secondary deterioration of spinal injuries, it is desirable to maintain the spinal immobilisation that is applied in the prehospital setting throughout computed tomography (CT) sca...

Authors: Pål Johan Stokkeland, Erlend Andersen, Maria Myhre Bjørndal, Arne Morten Mikalsen, Sindre Aslaksen and Per Kristian Hyldmo

Identifying pre-hospital factors associated with outcome for major trauma patients in a regional trauma network: an exploratory study

Major trauma is often life threatening and the leading cause of death in the United Kingdom (UK) for adults aged less than 45 years old. This study aimed to identify pre-hospital factors associated with patien...

Authors: Lee Thompson, Michael Hill, Caroline Davies, Gary Shaw and Matthew D Kiernan

The role of whole-body computed tomography in the diagnosis of thoracic injuries in severely injured patients – a retrospective multi-centre study based on the trauma registry of the German trauma society (TraumaRegister DGU^®)

Thoracic injuries are a leading cause of death in polytrauma patients. Early diagnosis and treatment are of paramount importance. Whole-body computed tomography (WBCT) has largely replaced traditional imaging ...

Authors: Patricia Lang, Martin Kulla, Fabian Kerwagen, Rolf Lefering, Benedikt Friemert and Hans-Georg Palm

Antiarrhythmic drug therapy among patients presenting to emergency department with symptomatic atrial fibrillation – a prospective nationwide cohort

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia that causes numerous visits to emergency departments (ED). The aim of the FinFib2 study was to evaluate whether treatment of patients with AF in ED is consistent...

Authors: Tero Penttilä, Heikki Mäkynen, Juha Hartikainen, Harri Hyppölä, Timo Lauri, Mika Lehto, Juha Lund and MJ Pekka Raatikainen

Hospitalisation in an emergency department short-stay unit compared to an internal medicine department is associated with fewer complications in older patients – an observational study

Older patients are at particular risk of experiencing adverse events during hospitalisation.

Authors: Camilla Strøm, Talie Khadem Mollerup, Laurits Schou Kromberg, Lars Simon Rasmussen and Thomas Andersen Schmidt

Subjective safety and self-confidence in prehospital trauma care and learning progress after trauma-courses: part of the prospective longitudinal mixed-methods EPPTC-trial

Prehospital trauma care is stressful and requires multi-professional teamwork. A decrease in the number of accident victims ultimately affects the routine and skills and underlines the importance of effective ...

Authors: David Häske, Stefan K. Beckers, Marzellus Hofmann, Rolf Lefering, Paul A. Grützner, Ulrich Stöckle, Vassilios Papathanassiou and Matthias Münzberg

Management of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in emergency departments, from bleeding symptoms to diagnosis: a prospective, multicenter, observational study

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGB) is common in emergency departments (EDs) and can be caused by many eso-gastro-duodenal lesions. Most available epidemiological data and data on the management of UGB comes...

Authors: Pierre-Clément Thiebaud, Youri Yordanov, Jacques-Emmanuel Galimard, Pierre-Alexis Raynal, Sébastien Beaune, Laurent Jacquin, François-Xavier Ageron and Dominique Pateron

Characteristics and outcome of rapid response team patients ≥75 years old: a prospective observational cohort study

Rapid response teams (RRTs) attend severely ill general ward patients whose average 30-day mortality is near 30%. A major part of RRT patients are over 75 years old, but there are no studies on the characteris...

Authors: Joonas Tirkkonen, Piritta Setälä and Sanna Hoppu

The Anticoagulated trauma patient in the age of the direct oral anticoagulants: a Canadian perspective

The anticoagulated trauma patient presents a particular challenge to the critical care physician. Our understanding of these patients is defined and extrapolated by experience with patients on warfarin pre-inj...

Authors: Brendan Wood, Barto Nascimento, Sandro Rizoli, Michelle Sholzberg, Amanda McFarlan, Andrea Phillips and Alun D. Ackery

Exploring how nurses assess, monitor and manage acute pain for adult critically ill patients in the emergency department: protocol for a mixed methods study

Many critically ill patients experience moderate to severe acute pain that is frequently undetected and/or undertreated. Acute pain in this patient cohort not only derives from their injury and/or illness, but...

Authors: Wayne Varndell, Margaret Fry and Doug Elliott

Computed tomography during initial management and mortality among hemodynamically unstable blunt trauma patients: a nationwide retrospective cohort study

Although many hemodynamically unstable trauma patients undergo computed tomography (CT) to identify a source of bleeding, this practice is currently only recommended by a few guidelines. To clarify whether CT ...

Authors: Yusuke Tsutsumi, Shingo Fukuma, Asuka Tsuchiya, Tatsuyoshi Ikenoue, Yosuke Yamamoto, Sayaka Shimizu, Miho Kimachi and Shunichi Fukuhara

Swedish-Norwegian co-operation in the treatment of three hypothermia victims: a case report

Accidental hypothermia with cardiac arrest represents a challenge for pre-hospital rescuers as well as in-hospital staff. For pre-hospital personnel, the main focus is to get the patient to the correct destina...

Authors: Anders Wetting Carlsen, Nils K. Skjaervold, Nils Johan Berg, Øystein Karlsen, Eli Gunnarson and Alexander Wahba

The use of non-uniform drowning terminology: a follow-up study

In 2002, the World Congress on Drowning developed a uniform definition for drowning. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of “non-uniform drowning terminology” (NUDT) and “non-uniform drowning ...

Authors: Andrew C. Schmidt, Justin R. Sempsrott, David Szpilman, Ana Catarina Queiroga, Matt S. Davison, Ryan J. Zeigler and Sean J. McAlister

A patient-safety and professional perspective on non-conveyance in ambulance care: a systematic review

This systematic review aimed to describe non-conveyance in ambulance care from patient-safety and ambulance professional perspectives. The review specifically focussed at describing (1) ambulance non-conveyanc...

Authors: Remco H.A. Ebben, Lilian C.M. Vloet, Renate F. Speijers, Nico W. Tönjes, Jorik Loef, Thomas Pelgrim, Margreet Hoogeveen and Sivera A.A. Berben

Demographic and clinical characteristics of carbon monoxide poisoning: nationwide data between 1999 and 2012 in Taiwan

Carbon monoxide poisoning (COP) is not uncommon, but nationwide epidemiological data are limited. We conducted a study in Taiwan to fill the data gaps.

Authors: Chien-Cheng Huang, Chung-Han Ho, Yi-Chen Chen, Hung-Jung Lin, Chien-Chin Hsu, Jhi-Joung Wang, Shih-Bin Su and How-Ran Guo

Serum lactate is an independent predictor of hospital mortality in critically ill patients in the emergency department: a retrospective study

Elevated lactate has been found to be associated with a higher mortality in a diverse patient population. The aim of the study is to investigate if initial serum lactate level is independently associated with ...

Authors: Ralphe Bou Chebl, Christopher El Khuri, Ali Shami, Eva Rajha, Nagham Faris, Rana Bachir and Gilbert Abou Dagher

Hypothermia induced alteration of repolarization - impact on acute and long-term outcome: a prospective cohort study

The effects of target temperature management (TTM) on the heart aren’t thoroughly studied yet. Several studies showed the prolongation of various ECG parameters including Tpeak-Tend-time under TTM. Our study’s...

Authors: Sophie von Ulmenstein, Christian Storm, Thomas G. K. Breuer, Sebastian Lask, Philipp Attanasio, Andreas Mügge and Alexander Wutzler

National consensus on communication in prehospital trauma care, the DENIM study

In the Netherlands prehospital trauma care is provided by emergency medical services (EMS) nurses. This care is extended by Physician staffed Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (P-HEMS) for the more severel...

Authors: Annelieke Maria Karien Harmsen, Leo Maria George Geeraedts Jr., Georgios Fredericus Giannakopoulos, Maartje Terra, Herman M. T. Christiaans, Lidwine Brigitta Mokkink and Frank Willem Bloemers

Controlled automated reperfusion of the whole body after 120 minutes of Cardiopulmonary resuscitation: first clinical report

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is associated with a high mortality rate. Furthermore, the few survivors often have severe, persistent cerebral dysfunction. A potential cause for this unsatisfactory outcom...

Authors: Georg Trummer, Alexander Supady, Friedhelm Beyersdorf, Christian Scherer, Tobias Wengenmayer, Markus Umhau and Christoph Benk

Effect of dextran-70 on outcome in severe sepsis; a propensity-score matching study

Albumin may be beneficial in patients with septic shock but availability is limited and cost is high. The objective of the present study was to investigate if the use of dextran-70 in addition to albumin and c...

Authors: Peter Bentzer, Marcus Broman and Thomas Kander

Mortality due to traumatic spinal cord injuries in Europe: a cross-sectional and pooled analysis of population-wide data from 22 countries

Traumatic spinal cord injuries (TSCI) pose a significant burden globally, while existing epidemiological data–especially on population mortality–are limited. The aim of this study was to calculate the age-stan...

Authors: Marek Majdan, Dominika Plancikova, Eva Nemcovska, Lenka Krajcovicova, Alexandra Brazinova and Martin Rusnak

Anatomical landmarks for safely implementing resuscitative balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) in zone 1 without fluoroscopy

Resuscitative balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) can maintain hemodynamic stability during hemorrhagic shock after a following torso injury, although inappropriate balloon placement may induce brain or vis...

Authors: Yohei Okada, Hiromichi Narumiya, Wataru Ishi and Ryoji Iiduka

Two cases of low birth weight infant survival by prehospital emergency hysterotomy

During maternal cardiac arrest, emergency hysterotomy (EH) is recommended after four minutes of resuscitation, if no signs of spontaneous circulation are detected. This extreme procedure is believed to be pote...

Authors: Miretta Tommila, Mikko Pystynen, Hanna Soukka, Fatih Aydin and Matias Rantanen

Risk score to predict false-positive ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction in the emergency department: a retrospective analysis

The best treatment approach for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is prompt primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, some patients show ST elevation on electrocardiography (E...

Authors: Ji Hoon Kim, Yun Ho Roh, Yoo Seok Park, Joon Min Park, Bo Young Joung, In Cheol Park, Sung Phil Chung and Min Joung Kim

Ultrasonography helps emergency physician identify the best lumbar puncture site under the conus medullaris

Ultrasonography – assisted lumbar puncture helps physicians identify traditional anatomical landmarks. However, it could help to overcome the anatomical dogmas and thus identify the best interspinous space und...

Authors: Line Dussourd, Batistin Martinon, Clara Candille, Carole Paquier, Claire Wintenberger, Perrine Dumanoir, Anais Plazanet, Damien Viglino and Maxime Maignan

Performance of point-of-care international normalized ratio measurement to diagnose trauma-induced coagulopathy

Trauma-induced coagulopathy (TIC) is a common feature after severe trauma. Detection of TIC is based upon classic coagulation tests including international normalized ratio (INR) value. Point-of-care (POC) dev...

Authors: Thomas Mistral, Yvonnick Boué, Jean-Luc Bosson, Pauline Manhes, Jules Greze, Julien Brun, Pierre Albaladejo, Jean-François Payen and Pierre Bouzat

Community first responders and responder schemes in the United Kingdom: systematic scoping review

Community First Responder (CFR) schemes support lay people to respond to medical emergencies, working closely with ambulance services. They operate widely in the UK. There has been no previous review of UK lit...

Authors: Viet-Hai Phung, Ian Trueman, Fiona Togher, Roderick Orner and A. Niroshan Siriwardena

Comparison of transportation related injury mechanisms and outcome of young road users and adult road users, a retrospective analysis on 24,373 patients derived from the TraumaRegister DGU^®

Most young people killed in road crashes are known as vulnerable road users. A combination of physical and developmental immaturity as well as inexperience increases the risk of road traffic accidents with a h...

Authors: Thomas Brockamp, Uli Schmucker, Rolf Lefering, Manuel Mutschler, Arne Driessen, Christian Probst, Bertil Bouillon and Paola Koenen

Poor performance of quick-SOFA (qSOFA) score in predicting severe sepsis and mortality – a prospective study of patients admitted with infection to the emergency department

We aimed to evaluate the clinical usefulness of qSOFA as a risk stratification tool for patients admitted with infection compared to traditional SIRS criteria or our triage system; the Rapid Emergency Triage a...

Authors: Åsa Askim, Florentin Moser, Lise T. Gustad, Helga Stene, Maren Gundersen, Bjørn Olav Åsvold, Jostein Dale, Lars Petter Bjørnsen, Jan Kristian Damås and Erik Solligård