Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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High concentration oxygen therapy has long been a mainstay of prehospital treatment. Guidelines for its administration have for many years also cautioned its use with patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). ⋯ One study demonstrated that 80% of patients sampled with acute exacerbation of their COPD received oxygen in excess of 28% from the ambulance crew. Is this a worrying development or a reassuring sign that prehospital providers are rightly more concerned about the dangers of hypoxia than hyperoxia? And if the guidelines are right, then how are the hearts and minds of ambulance paramedics and technicians won?
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Sedation for short but potentially painful procedures is often undertaken in the emergency department. The ideal sedative regimen should provide analgesia and anxiolysis with minimal side effects and cardiorespiratory depression and rapid recovery post-procedure. Propofol has found increasing popularity with anaesthetists for sedation in the operating theatre. ⋯ Eight articles were selected for review. The evidence suggests that propofol is both effective and safe to use in the emergency department. However, several of the papers reviewed used deep levels of sedation that are not recommended in the UK by non-anaesthetists.
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Review Comparative Study
Best evidence topic report. Clopidogrel plus aspirin or aspirin alone in unstable angina.
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The French word "trier", the origin of the word "triage", was originally applied to a process of sorting, probably around 1792, by Baron Dominique Jean Larrey, Surgeon in Chief to Napoleon's Imperial Guard. Larrey was credited with designing a flying ambulance: the Ambulance Volante. Baron Francois Percy also contributed to the organisation of a care system for the ongoing management of casualties. Out of the French Service de Santé, not only emerged the concept of triage, but the organisational structure necessary to handle the growing number of casualties in modern warfare.