Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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A short cut review was carried out to establish whether an epidural infusion provided any advantage over intravenous analgesia in the management of blunt thoracic trauma. Only four papers presented evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of this paper are presented in table 2. The clinical bottom line is that epidural analgesia may provide better pain relief, but may not alter clinical outcomes.
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Rupture of a splenic artery aneurysm remains an uncommon cause of hypovolaemic shock in the emergency department. This case report highlights that rapid resuscitation, diagnostic imaging, surgical consultation, and subsequent laparotomy remain the priorities in patient management.