Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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The purpose of this study was to assess the publication rate of the abstracts presented at the 6th Mediterranean Emergency Medicine Congress, 2011 and the 7th European Congress on Emergency Medicine, 2012. ⋯ The publication rate of abstracts submitted to international emergency medicine congresses held by EUSEM over those 2 years was low compared with that of abstracts presented in other emergency medicine congresses. Presenters should be encouraged to send their studies to peer-reviewed journals. During the selection process by the scientific panel, constructive critics should be notified to the presenters instead of simply accepting or rejecting the studies that submitted to the congress, which may increase the subsequent publication rate.
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Review Case Reports
BET 2: The use of age-related D-dimers to rule out deep vein thrombosis.
A short cut review was carried out to establish whether the use of age-adjusted D-dimer cut-offs is better than the standard, unadjusted diagnostic cut-off for excluding the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in the Emergency Department. Three studies were directly relevant to the question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are tabulated. The clinical bottom line is that the use of an age-adjusted D-dimer cut-off in patients aged over 50 years increases the ability to safely exclude DVT in patients with low clinical probability without the need for ultrasound scanning.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Randomised trial of the fascia iliaca block versus the '3-in-1' block for femoral neck fractures in the emergency department.
Femoral neck fractures are a common and painful injury. Femoral nerve blocks, and a variant of this technique termed the '3-in-1' block, are often used in this patient group, but their effect is variable. The fascia iliaca compartment block (FIB) has been proposed as an alternative, but the relative effectiveness of the two techniques in the early stages of care is unknown. We therefore compared the FIB versus the 3-in-1 block in a randomised trial conducted in two UK emergency departments. ⋯ FIB is equivalent to the 3-in-1 block for immediate pain relief in adult neck of femur fractures.