Prehospital and disaster medicine
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Oct 1996
Letter Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialNebulized lidocaine as an adjunct to endotracheal intubation in the prehospital setting.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Oct 1996
Comparative StudyA comparison of EMS continuing education for paramedics in the United States.
To determine characteristics of continuing education programs for paramedics in large metropolitan areas, and to make recommendations for changes in the Chicago Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system. ⋯ EMS systems primarily use didactic sessions to meet their continuing education requirements. Nearly half of the systems requiring clinical continuing education use in-field credit to fulfill these requirements. In-field credit systems are poorly developed to date. This mechanism may be an effective alternative to usual clinical experiences for paramedics and deserves further investigation.
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The capnometric demonstration of end-tidal carbon dioxide (CO2) is a reliable method of differentiating between a correct endotracheal tube position and an accidental misplacement of the tube into the esophagus. Recently, several CO2 detectors have been introduced for monitoring end-tidal CO2 in the "out-of-hospital" setting, where quantitative capnometry with capnography is not yet available. ⋯ The presence of 5% CO does not interfere with infrared spectrometry detection (MiniCAP and StatCAP) or chemical detection (EasyCAP, PediCAP, and Colibri) of CO2. The devices can be used safely in patients with CO poisoning for monitoring of endotracheal tube position.