Can J Emerg Med
-
Review Meta Analysis
The role of adjunctive antibiotics in the treatment of skin and soft tissue abscesses: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
To perform a review and meta-analysis on the effect of antibiotics on treatment of skin and soft tissue abscesses (SSTAs) after incision and drainage. ⋯ Despite limitations in pooling available data, there is no clear evidence to support antibiotic use in treating uncomplicated SSTAs.
-
Multicenter Study Observational Study
Accuracy of physician-estimated probability of brain injury in children with minor head trauma.
To evaluate the accuracy of physician estimates of the probability of intracranial injury in children with minor head trauma. ⋯ Physician estimates of probability of any brain injury in children were collectively accurate for children with low and moderate degrees of predicted risk. Risk was underestimated in infants.
-
Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is a common dysrhythmia treated in the prehospital setting. Emergency medical service (EMS) agencies typically require patients treated for SVT to be transported to the hospital. This retrospective cohort study evaluated the impact, paramedic adherence, and patient re-presentation rates of a treat-and-release (T+R) protocol for uncomplicated SVT. ⋯ The T+R protocol evaluated in this study applied to a significant proportion of patients presenting to EMS with SVT. Risk of re-presentation following T+R was low, and paramedic protocol adherence was reasonable. T+R appears to be a viable option for uncomplicated SVT in the prehospital setting.
-
Collaborative writing applications (CWAs), such as the Google DocsTM platform, can improve skill acquisition, knowledge retention, and collaboration in medical education. Using CWAs to support the training of residents offers many advantages, but stimulating them to contribute remains challenging. The purpose of this study was to identify emergency medicine (EM) residents' beliefs about their intention to contribute summaries of landmark articles to a Google DocsTM slideshow while studying for their Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) certification exam. ⋯ Salient beliefs exist regarding EM residents' intention to contribute content to an online collaborative writing project using a Google DocsTM slideshow. Overall, participants perceived more advantages than disadvantages to contributing and believed that this initiative would receive wide support. However, participants reported several barriers that need to be addressed to increase contributions. Our intention is for the beliefs identified in this study to contribute to the design of a theory-based questionnaire to explore determinants of residents' intentions to contribute to an online collaborative writing project. This will help develop implementation strategies for increasing contributions to other CWAs in medical education.