Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To describe the epidemiology of snowmobile injuries in Utah. ⋯ By combining ED, inpatient, and death certificate data sets, probabilistic linkage provides a comprehensive description of snowmobile-related injuries and a baseline evaluation of morbidity, mortality, and financial burden.
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Mental health aspects of emergency medical services for children: summary of a consensus conference.
To address the mental health needs of children involved in emergency medical services (EMS). ⋯ Ecological changes in emergency departments, such as linkages to mental health follow-up services, training of EMS providers and mental health professionals, and focused research that provides an empirical basis for practice, are necessary components for improving current standards of health care.
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Comparative Study
Neurotensin analog NT69L induces rapid and prolonged hypothermia after hypoxic ischemia.
To determine whether the neurotensin analog NT69L, administered systemically, could induce mild brain hypothermia after asphyxial cardiac arrest (ACA) in rats. ⋯ NT69L induced rapid and prolonged mild brain hypothermia after ACA in this rat model and reduced neurological deficits.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Ethical dilemmas in a randomized trial of asthma treatment: can Bayesian statistical analysis explain the results?
The original objective was to determine whether the use of bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) ventilation would reduce the need for endotracheal intubation, the length of hospital stay, and hospital charges in patients with status asthmaticus. The development of physician treatment bias made patient enrollment difficult. The article subsequently describes the use of Bayesian statistics to explain study results when this bias occurs. ⋯ In this study, BiPAP appeared to have no deleterious effects in patients with status asthmaticus, with a trend toward decreased endotracheal intubation rate, decreased length of hospital stay, and decreased hospital charges. Although further study with more patients is needed to determine the clinical and statistical significance of this intervention, ethical concerns regarding withholding BiPAP treatment from the patients in the control group forced a premature termination of the study in the authors' institution.
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Comparative Study
Emergency medicine resident patient care documentation using a hand-held computerized device.
To determine whether emergency medicine (EM) resident documentation of procedures, patient encounters, and patient follow-ups improved after implementation of a personal digital assistant (PDA) hand-held recording system. ⋯ Use of a hand-held PDA was associated with an increase in first-year EM resident documentation in three of 20 procedures and a decrease in one procedure and the number of unstable surgical pediatric patient resuscitations. The overall time savings in constructing a resident procedure database, as well as the other uses of the PDAs, may make transition to a hand-held computer-based procedure log an attractive option for EM residencies.