Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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For a significant number of patients suffering out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is likely to be futile and attempting it may be the wrong thing to do. Anticipatory care plans with do-not-attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) instructions exist to prevent this. Anecdotally we felt that many patients present to our Emergency Department (ED) with ongoing resuscitation which was not in their best interests. The aim of this study was to establish the proportion of patients arriving in our ED with ongoing CPR who had low, intermediate or high risk of futility. ⋯ Our results suggest that community DNACPR implementation in Edinburgh is suboptimal, with many patients resuscitated and transported to the ED with ongoing resuscitation despite a high likelihood of futility. It is unclear what is required to improve this situation. Possible avenues for improvement may be more anticipatory care planning in the community, better recording of the outcomes of key conversations with patients and carers, or more consistent implementation of these plans by Ambulance Service responders. We plan further work to establish how this system can be changed to serve patients and their families better.
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An NHS England review recognised that demand for Urgent and Emergency Care is unsustainable. Health practitioners and policy makers are interested in understanding the reasons why patients with low acuity problems attend the Emergency Department (ED). This should, in turn, assist the development of interventions to reduce demand.We aimed to gain an understanding about the reasons for rising ED demand and to identify possible solutions. ⋯ We found evidence of a rise in patients being referred to the ED by other healthcare services. This may be a reflection of the wider healthcare system under strain, thereby causing overspill into EDs. Future research is needed to design and test interventions that can lead to improvements in the system that are acceptable to patients, do not lead to increased demand, are cost-effective and lead to more sustainable working environments.
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Sudden cardiac death is one of the leading causes of mortality in the UK. The incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in the UK is approximately 30 000. The initial cardiac rhythm in these cases is often a ventricular tachyarrhythmia which requires electrical defibrillation. The efficacy of defibrillation is dependent on its timely use, with the odds of survival decreasing by up to 10% for every minute of delay. The use of AEDs has been shown to significantly improve neurologically intact survival in OHCA. Significant progress has been made regarding the provision of AEDs in public places but it is questioned whether sufficient public education has been undertaken in order to support this strategy. This study aims to explore the attitudes of the general public in order to inform public education strategies, increase AED use and ultimately improve survival of OHCA. ⋯ The level of knowledge of AEDs is low amongst the general public. Majority of the study population who knew about AEDs had some degree of resuscitation training. Further research is required to ascertain how to translate knowledge into optimal use of AEDs in practice.
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There are no widely accepted validated clinical decision rules for the use of WBCT in trauma. Given the potential risks and costs, there is a clear need for a clinical decision rule (CDR) to safely guide targeted use of WBCT. We aimed to derive a CDR to guide clinical decisions on WBCT utilisation by detecting patients at high and low risk of multi-region trauma. ⋯ 1608 patients were included in the study. The derived model combined a bespoke physiological score with mechanistic and anatomical factors. The physiological score identified the risk of multi-region injury at various cut-offs of age, systolic blood pressure, GCS, heart rate and respiratory rate. Patients were further categorised according to mechanism of injury and clinical findings, and specific physiological scores were applied to each category to determine which patients in these categories required WBCT. 'High risk' injury mechanisms included high falls and unprotected road traffic collisions. Clinical signs of injury were categorised by body region, including the head, chest, abdomen and pelvis (figure 1). The overall sensitivity of the clinical decision rule for the primary objective was 96.0% (95% CI:94.8 to 97.2) while the specificity was36.1% (95% CI:33.3 to 39.0). The negative likelihood ratio was 0.11. For the secondary objective the sensitivity was 98.5%, the negative likelihood ratio 0.04.emermed;34/12/A861-a/F1F1F1Figure 1 CONCLUSION: This study derived a two stage CDR which was highly sensitive for identifying patients at high risk of multiregion injury. A prospective external validation study is now required to further refine and improve this model. This could provide a useful screening tool in the future.
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Forearm fractures are the most common paediatric injury presenting to A+E.1,2 Literature supports safe and effective treatment of these injuries in A+E using a variety of sedation methods, including ketamine.3,4 The Paediatric Orthopaedic Trauma Snapshot (POTS) study showed that only 35% of A+Es nationally allow manipulation of these injuries in the department. ⋯ With adequate and appropriate training, the majority of simple radius and ulna fractures can be reduced and definitively treated safely and effectively using Es-ketamine in the emergency department. This technique has significant benefits in terms of resource management and finance whilst maintaining optimum patient care.