Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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To study utilization, indications, and outcomes associated with the use of a statewide, emergency medical services (EMS) standing-order protocol for cricothyrotomy. ⋯ A considerable percentage of cricothyrotomy procedures were performed on patients with non-trauma-related diagnoses in this investigation describing a standing-order EMS protocol for cricothyrotomy. The majority of patients undergoing cricothyrotomy with this protocol were in cardiac arrest at the time of cricothyrotomy, with a small minority of patients surviving to hospital discharge and fewer surviving neurologically intact.
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Biography Historical Article
A tribute to Peter Safar, MD: Physician, researcher, mentor, visionary, humanist.
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Multicenter Study
Factors associated with the use of pharmacologic agents to facilitate out-of-hospital endotracheal intubation.
To identify a set of clinical factors most strongly associated with the use of drug-facilitated intubation (DFI) in the out-of-hospital setting. ⋯ The authors identified a set of predictors strongly associated with DFI. These data offer insight into the current use of DFI and support the development of consensus-based guidelines for this procedure.
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To develop and retrospectively analyze an instrument that rapidly characterizes pretreatment stroke severity for use in prehospital acute stroke clinical trials. ⋯ A motor score derived from the LAPSS rapidly quantifies stroke severity in the field and predicts functional outcomes with accuracy comparable to that of the full NIHSS and the sNIHSS.
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Comparative Study
Endotracheal intubation and esophageal tracheal Combitube insertion by regular ambulance attendants: a comparative trial.
Recent cardiac arrest resuscitation guidelines have recommended the esophageal tracheal Combitube (ETC) as an advanced airway management alternative for individuals who infrequently perform endotracheal intubation (ETI). This study attempted to analyze basic (nonparamedic) ambulance attendant success rates at ETI and ETC insertion as well as their continuing skill competency over time and whether ongoing practice on mannequins improved skill performance. ⋯ There were similar rates of successful insertion/ventilation with the ETC and ETI. ETI insertion success was lower without mannequin practice. ETI skill erosion was partially mitigated by additional field experience.