Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Letter Case Reports
Medico-legal consideration of gastric lavage in acutely intoxicated patients.
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A short cut review was carried out to establish whether prophylactic antibiotics should be used as part of the management of uncomplicated hand lacerations. From a search of 237 papers only five presented trials addressing 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 tabulated. The clinical bottom line is that there doesn't appear to be any evidence to support the use of prophylactic antibiotics in uncomplicated hand lacerations.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Safe access/egress systems for emergency ambulances.
To comparatively evaluate the three most widely used ambulance stretcher loading systems; easi-loader, ramp/winch and tail lift to identify a preferred system based on safety and usability evidence. ⋯ The tail lift was found to be the preferred and safest loading system from both the field and laboratory research and is the recommended option from the evaluated loading systems.
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Review Case Reports
Life-threatening episode after ingestion of toad eggs: a case report with literature review.
It is known that toad possesses several toxic substances in the skin and parotid glands. In the past, toad-venom poisoning had been reported from ingestion of toad soup, Kyushin and aphrodisiac pills, but the poisoning from toad eggs is observed for the first time. The case of a healthy female who had previously eaten toad soup twice without any discomfort is reported. She developed gastrointestinal symptoms and life-threatening cardiac rhythm after ingestion of toad eggs.
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Multicenter Study
Bupivacaine in the emergency department is underused: scope for improved patient care.
To determine patterns of local anaesthetic use, knowledge and perceived use of local anaesthetic by emergency department doctors, and barriers to bupivacaine use. ⋯ Bupivacaine seems to be underused in some appropriate circumstances. Accordingly, there is scope for improvement in patient care through critical evaluation of local anaesthetic practice. This is particularly necessary because barriers to bupivacaine use are often non-clinical (habit, availability, familiarity) rather than clinical (toxicity, onset time).