Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Clashes between state security forces and civilian populations can lead to mass casualty incidents (MCI), challenging emergency medical service (EMS) systems, hospitals and medical management systems. In January 2006, clashes erupted between Israeli security forces and settlers, around the forced evacuation of the Amona outpost. ⋯ Large-scale clashes between state security forces and citizens may cause numerous injuries, even if firearms and explosives are not used. Despite the fact that almost all injuries were mild, the incident burdened local medical teams, EMS and Jerusalem hospitals. A predominance of head injuries was found among injured settlers and extremity injuries among injured security forces.
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Comparative Study
Forget the blood, not the stone! Microhaematuria in acute urolithiasis and the role of early CT scanning.
Although urinalysis is simple and inexpensive to perform, the finding of microhaematuria on urinalysis may be unreliable for diagnosing urolithiasis. ⋯ The sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive value of microhaematuria on urinalysis for urolithiasis using unenhanced MDCT as the reference standard were low. This suggests that, when urolithiasis is clinically suspected, unenhanced MDCT is indicated without urinalysis being a prerequisite.
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Comparative Study
Lactic acidosis not hyperlactatemia as a predictor of in hospital mortality in septic emergency patients.
To compare the prognostic abilities of lactic acidosis and hyperlactatemia and determine the influence of metabolic acidosis when attempting to predict the outcome of septic patients using serum lactate levels. ⋯ Lactic acidosis not hyperlactatemia was found to predict inhospital mortality more exactly in severe sepsis and septic shock patients. The acid-base state should be considered when attempting to predict the outcome of septic patients using serum lactate levels.
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One of the problems with manual resuscitators is the difficulty in achieving accurate volume delivery. The volume delivered to the patient varies by the physical characteristics of the person and method. This study was designed to compare tidal volumes delivered by the squeezing method, physical characteristics and education and practice levels. ⋯ The tidal volume delivered by a manual resuscitator shows large variations. There were significant differences in the volume delivered by compression methods, but physical characteristics are not a predictor of tidal volume delivery. The manual resuscitator is not a suitable device for accurate ventilation.