Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Emergency medical technician-basic (EMT-B) providers are not trained to establish vascular or intraosseous (IO) access on critically ill patients. This study was conducted to examine the feasibility of training EMT-B students to correctly place a commercial sternal IO infusion device (FAST-1). ⋯ EMT-B students with minimal training demonstrated limited success with applying a commercial sternal IO device. Clinical application by EMT-Bs on critically ill patients may be possible with more intensive training.
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Comparative Study
HEMS vs. Ground-BLS care in traumatic cardiac arrest.
To assess whether a top-level type of prehospital care, made of helicopter, physician, and advanced life support (ALS) procedures, improves the outcome of blunt trauma victims found in cardiac arrest (CA) as compared with a simpler type, composed of ground ambulance, nurse, and expanded basic life support (BLS). ⋯ A top-level type of prehospital care had significantly more chances to resuscitate blunt trauma victims found in CA as compared with a simpler level. No significant benefit on long-term outcome was found, but more cases might be needed in future studies because of the inevitably low number of survivors.
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Comparative Study
Association of heat index and patient volume at a mass gathering event.
In 1999, a department of emergency medicine was asked to provide medical care at a football stadium with a capacity of 61,625. Over four seasons, the department's experience has been that the number of patients seen during a game correlates closely with game-time heat and humidity (heat index). ⋯ In this retrospective study, the heat index was strongly associated with the volume of patients who would be seen at a mass gathering event.
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Comparative Study
The impact of a new CPR assist device on rate of return of spontaneous circulation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
The San Francisco Fire Department deployed an automated, load-distributing-band chest compression device (AutoPulse, Revivant Corporation) to evaluate its function in a large urban emergency medical services (EMS) service. A retrospective chart review was undertaken to determine whether the AutoPulse had altered short-term patient outcome, specifically, return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). ⋯ The AutoPulse may improve the overall likelihood of sustained ROSC and may particularly benefit patients with nonshockable rhythms. A prospective randomized trial comparing the AutoPulse with manual CPR in the setting of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest is under way.