Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Serum neuron-specific enolase as a predictor of intracranial lesions in children with head trauma: a pilot study.
To determine the reliability of serum neuron-specific enolase (NSE) levels in predicting intracranial lesions (ICL) in children with blunt head trauma (HT). ⋯ These results suggest that serum NSE may be a useful screening tool for predicting ICL in children with blunt head trauma. However, the NSE alone was neither sensitive nor specific in predicting all patients with ICL.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A randomized controlled trial to assess decay in acquired knowledge among paramedics completing a pediatric resuscitation course.
Critical pediatric illness or injury occurs infrequently in out-of-hospital settings, making it difficult for paramedics to maintain physical assessment, treatment, and procedure skills. ⋯ Although intensive out-of-hospital pediatric education enhances knowledge, that knowledge rapidly decays. Emergency medical services programs need to find novel ways to increase retention and ensure paramedic readiness.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Pretreatment of lacerations with lidocaine, epinephrine, and tetracaine at triage: a randomized double-blind trial.
Pretreatment of lacerations with topical anesthetics reduces the pain of subsequent anesthetic injection yet requires time. This study was conducted to determine the ability of triage nurses to identify lacerations necessitating closure and pretreat them with a topical anesthetic and to compare the pain levels of lidocaine injection in lacerations pretreated with LET (lidocaine 2%, epinephrine 1:1,000, tetracaine 2%) vs a placebo. ⋯ Application of LET by triage nurses is more effective than placebo in adequately anesthetizing simple lacerations in normal hosts and decreases the pain of local anesthetic infiltration.
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Comparative Study
Does advanced age matter in outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in community-dwelling adults?
To assess whether advanced age is an independent predictor of survival to hospital discharge in community-dwelling adult patients who sustained an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in a suburban county. ⋯ There was a twofold decrease in survival following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest to discharge in patients aged 80 or more when compared with the reference group in this suburban county setting. However, resuscitation for community-dwelling elders aged 65-89 is not futile. These data support that out-of-hospital resuscitation of elders up to age 90 years is not associated with a universal dismal outcome.