European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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Traumatic cardiac arrest is associated with poor prognosis, and timely evidence-based treatment is paramount for increasing survival rates. Physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service use in major trauma has demonstrated improved outcomes. However, the sparsity of data highlights the necessity for a comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology of traumatic cardiac arrest. ⋯ This study highlights the low survival rates observed among patients with traumatic cardiac arrest assessed by helicopter emergency medical services. The findings support the positive impact of an initial shockable cardiac rhythm and endotracheal intubation in improving the likelihood of ROSC. The study contributes to the limited literature on traumatic cardiac arrests assessed by physician-staffed helicopter emergency services. Finally, the findings emphasise the need for further research to understand and improve outcomes in this subgroup of cardiac arrest.
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Observational Study
Older age and risk for delayed abdominal pain care in the emergency department.
Suboptimal acute pain care has been previously reported to be associated with demographic characteristics. ⋯ In a consecutive series of patients with abdominal pain, advancing age was the only demographic variable associated with prolonged time to initial analgesia. Older patients were found to have a linearly increasing, age-dependent risk for prolonged wait for pain care.
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Multiple decision-aiding models are available to help physicians identify acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and accelerate the decision-making process in emergency departments (EDs). This study evaluated the diagnostic performance of the Manchester Acute Coronary Syndrome (MACS) rule and its derivations, enhancing the evidence for their clinical use. A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed. ⋯ Of all the MACS models, T-MACS displayed the highest overall accuracy due to its high sensitivity and significantly superior specificity. T-MACS exhibits very good diagnostic performance in predicting both AMI and MACE. This makes it a highly promising tool for managing patients with acute chest pain.