Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2014
Comparative StudyComparison of intubation performance by emergency medicine residents using gum elastic bougie versus standard stylet in simulated easy and difficult intubation scenarios.
We sought to evaluate the success rate and time to endotracheal intubation by emergency medicine residents with stylet reinforced endotracheal tube (ETT-S) versus intubation with a gum elastic bougie (GEB) in simulated easy and difficult airways on a cadaveric model. ⋯ Time to intubation in a simulated grade 3 view was significantly longer in the GEB group versus the ETT-S group. Although the differences in success rates were not statistically significant, there was a trend toward more successful intubations with the GEB in the simulated grade 3 view.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2014
Diagnosis of subarachnoid haemorrhage: A survey of Australasian emergency physicians and trainees.
This study aims to establish current practice among Australasian emergency physicians and trainees on several aspects of the investigation of suspected subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). ⋯ A range of information was collected regarding the investigation of suspected SAH. We report significant differences in the diagnostic approach of Australasian emergency physicians and trainees to this condition, in particular the utility of CT within 6 h for exclusion of SAH.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2014
Management of children with possible appendicitis: A survey of emergency physicians in Australia and New Zealand.
To describe current practice in managing children with possible acute appendicitis in EDs in Australia and New Zealand as the basis for a clinical practice guideline (CPG). ⋯ This survey of senior emergency physicians across Australia and New Zealand demonstrated congruence in several clinical markers and disagreements in others in the approach to diagnosing children with possible appendicitis. Whereas emergency physicians would like a validated CPG, this survey has highlighted some critical issues. Particularly, the low regard for blood tests, integral to published diagnostic scoring systems, will be a challenge for the development and introduction of such a CPG in Australia and New Zealand.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2014
Emergency weight estimation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the Northern Territory: Are the current methods accurate?
During a paediatric emergency, it is often impractical to weigh a child. Many resuscitative measures require a child's weight; therefore, estimation is often used. Different methods are available to do this, usually based on a child's age or length. The accuracy of these methods has not been validated in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from remote communities. The objective of this study was to determine how well these paediatric emergency weight estimation methods predict weight for this group of children. ⋯ Our data support the use of the Broselow® Tape as the recommended method when estimating weight in an emergency for remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the NT for the 0-5 year age group.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2014
Piloting an online incident reporting system in Australasian emergency medicine.
Medical-specific incident reporting systems are critical to understanding error in healthcare but underreporting by doctors reduces their value. ⋯ Collecting patient safety information by frontline doctors is essential to actively engage the profession in patent safety. Although the EMER system allowed easy online reporting of high quality incident data by doctors, site recruitment and system uptake proved difficult. System use by ED doctors requires dedicated and conscious effort from the profession.