Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Mitigation of pain during intravenous catheter placement using a topical skin coolant in the emergency department.
Although intravenous (i.v.) line placement is a common procedure in the emergency department (ED), it is an uncomfortable experience for many patients. Topical analgesic agents are rarely used because they have long onsets of action and thereby cause unacceptable treatment delays. Cryoanaesthesia, the use of cooling agents to reduce pain, has been recognised for many years as a potential pain management strategy. The purpose of this study was to determine whether an instantaneous topical skin coolant spray reduces patient's pain during i.v. cannulation and represents a feasible alternative for cutaneous analgesia in the ED setting. ⋯ Our study failed to detect a difference in pain perception resulting from the pre-procedural application of a skin coolant associated with i.v. placement in the ED setting.
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Multicenter Study
A state-wide survey of medical emergency management in dental practices: incidence of emergencies and training experience.
Only a few data exist about the occurrence of emergencies in dental practice and the training experience of dental practice teams in life support. This study evaluates the incidence of emergencies in dental practices, the attitude of dentists towards emergency management and their training experience. ⋯ Medical emergencies are not rare in dental practice, although most of them are not life-threatening. Improvement of competence in emergency management should include repeated participation in life support courses, standardisation of courses and offering courses designed to meet the needs of dentists.