The Resus Room

Welcome back to the podcast! Three more papers covering topics that are relevant to all of our practice.

The importance of removing wet clothes from patients is often discussed, both to prevent hypothermia and increase patient comfort. But how important is it to get wet clothes off and is it something we can defer to a different point? We start off taking a look at an RCT on this very question.

Next up another RCT, this time looking at the efficacy of morphine, ibuprofen and paracetamol for patients with closed limb injuries. Which one, or combination, would you think would be most efficacious…

Lastly, following on from our most recent Roadside to Resus episode, we take a look at a paper on the association between end tidal CO2 levels and mortality in prehospital patients with suspected traumatic brain injury. This paper highlights really well the need understand the fundamentals that contribute to ETCO2 when applying to clinical practice. 

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon & Rob

End Tidal CO2, or ETCO2 for short, is something that’s talked about pretty often in Emergency and Critical Care and that’s because it’s used a lot in the assessment and treatment of patients!

It’s got a big part to play in airway management, resuscitation, sedation and is also increasingly used in other situations. Some of these applications have some pretty strong evidence to back them up but others are definitely worth a deeper thought, because without a sound understanding of ETCO2 we can fall foul of some traps…

ETCO2 is a non-invasive measurement of the partial pressure of CO2 in expired gas at the end of exhalation. Ideally we’d like to know what’s really going on arterially with the partial pressure of arterial CO2 but we can use the end tidal because that’s an easy reading to get from exhaled breath, when it will most closely resemble the alveolar CO2 concentration.

Its value is reflective of ventilation but also really importantly is affected by the circulation, the circuit and how it’s applied. In the podcast we run through all of these aspects, its application to clinical care and also some of its pitfalls. 

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to the podcast, a new month, three more papers and discussion around the topics.

We kick off with a paper comparing mechanical ventilation in CPR compared to the more traditional hand ventilation; what difference does the machine make to ventilation in arrest and should we be changing to this strategy as a standard?

We've talked about aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage a fair amount on the podcast and the second paper looks at the effectiveness of lumbar CSF drain compared to standard care with some pretty staggering results!

Lastly we take a look at a paper exploring decision making in prehospital trauma, specifically with regard to blood transfusion. This is a great paper to focus on the complexities of decision making, understand decision making strategies, recognise areas of weakness and consider how aspects of these can be used educationally and to improve emergency care for our patients.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon & Rob

As we all know, rapid and effective resuscitation makes a huge difference to the chance of survival from a cardiac arrest.

If you’re going to pick a rhythm to have as the patient or as the Resuscitationist, then it’s going to be a shockable rhythm, so VF or pulseless VT as they hold the greatest chance of survival. You'll find an initial shockable rhythm in around 20% of cases & defibrillation alone may lead to a ROSC. So it’s absolutely imperative to get the immediate management spot on!

Whilst current practice is good, there are some aspects of care that we can improve on and make a real difference to outcomes in these patients, with those first on scene or at the bedside in a phenomenally important position to deliver life saving care.

In this episode we’ll be talking predominantly about refractory VF but the strategy will transfer to how we can also deal with refractory VT cardiac arrests. 

We'll be running through all of the following;

• VF incidence
• Mechanisms behind VF
• Refractory and recurrent VF
• Defibrillation strategies
• Pharmacological strategies
• PCI in arrest
• ECMO

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to February's papers of the month.

Syncope is a really common presentation to the Emergency Department and it can be complicated to tease out those with a concerning precipitant from the others with a more benign cause. The first paper gives us some context to the management of these undifferentiated syncopes and provides a barometer for how stringently ESC guidance on the topic is followed.

Next up we take a look a huge RCT of transfusion thresholds in patients presenting with a myocardial infarction. Should we be restrictive in our approach, saving a valuable resource, or is it validated to transfuse more liberally in terms of the patients outcome?

Finally we take a look at a paper looking to tease out the predictors of post intubation hypotension in those getting a prehospital anaesthetic following trauma, with some interesting associations and factors to looks out for.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon & Rob

Fever is an incredibly effective mechanism to fight off pathogens.

Clearly, whilst many illnesses that cause a fever don’t require anything more than the body’s natural response, there are some patients in which a fever might represent a serious illness. Differentiating those serious illnesses from self-limiting presentations can be tricky at times, but can also be anxiety provoking for clinicians and parents, or carers of that child. 

In children the limited communication can make the diagnostic challenge of the origin of the fever a real challenge, along with the added difficult of gaining some tests. Differentiating those with a benign disease from those with a life threatening presentation can be a daunting challenge.

The numbers of presentations to healthcare providers are staggering. Paediatric fever has been reported to represent as high as 15-25% of all presentations in primary care and emergency departments, so massive numbers. Thankfully the prevalence of serious infections in children is low and is estimated at

Happy New Year!

We've got some great topic and in person events lined up for 2024 which we'll be able to share some more details about with you soon.

This month we look at an RCT of conservative airway management in patients with a low GCS following presentation with acute poisoning.

Next up we take a look at paper reviewing our diagnostic ability with dissociative seizures; this gives us some really valuable signs and symptoms to looks for and outlines how we can improve with these presentations.

Lastly we look at prognostic scores following out of hospital cardiac arrests with a study that compares four different scores. If reliable they have significant scope to help us to both prognosticate and give valuable information to family and loved ones on their presentation to ED.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon & Rob

We know it's the festive season but we thought we’d try and cover an issue from which there appears to be no escape and is a particular problem at this time of year, queuing!

Whether we like it or not, this has become a factor for all of us working in emergency care, whether its delays getting your patient into the department, queueing down the corridor into ED, a prolonged stay in ED for an appropriate ward, or even in a physical queue to get out of the ED and onto an appropriate bed!

We are looking after our patients for significantly longer than we’re used to and this pushes the patient and the clinician into an area of care in which we have limited experience and comfort.

Rather than accepting delays and ignoring their inevitable impact on patient care, we need to move towards equipping ourselves with the skills and knowledge to fill that care vacuum and ensure that excellence in patient care continues throughout their time with the ambulance service.

So with that in mind, in this episode we’re going to think about some of the considerations and interventions that are required to ensure our patients remain safe and comfortable throughout their queueing experience. And to do that we’re going to draw on the concept of prolonged field care.

An article by Aehbric O’Kelley and Tom Mallinson recently authored a paper published in Journal of paramedic practice entitled “Prolonged field care principles in UK paramedic practice”. That article really provided the idea and stimulus for this episode, so thanks to them for all of the hard work and once you’ve listened to us waffle on you should head across to their paper for a far more eloquent explanation of it all!

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon, Rob & James

We've talked about Aortic Dissection before in our Roadside to Resus episode and the huge difficulties in picking out these rare but potentially devastating cases and this month we've got a fantastic paper on the topic! The DAShED study looks at patients presenting with symptoms that could be suggestive of aortic dissection and helps us understand the diagnostic challenge and approach to acute aortic syndrome, along with testing the characteristics of a number of decision tools.

Next up we look at a paper from Bendszus, an RCT of medical versus thrombectomy and medical treatment for acute ischaemic strokes with a large infarct, with some really powerful results.

Finally we look at a paper that shows some staggeringly different ROSC rates for patients in cardiac arrest depending on the size of the ventilation bag used!

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon & Rob

Blood gases are really commonly used in ED, Critical Care, Respiratory Medicine and Prehospitally. In fact, you’d do well to walk 10 meters in an ED without being given one to sign off! But it’s for good reason, because they give you additional information about what’s going on from a respiratory and metabolic perspective in the patient.

And it’s probably worth mentioning at this point, this episode is going to be pretty ‘science-heavy’, there should be something in here for everyone; from the clinician that's been looking at these things for the last 30 years, to those that haven't started interpreting gases.

So arterial blood gases can tell you about the efficacy of the patients ventilation in terms of their partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and also from a metabolic perspective about other disorders of their acid-base balance. 

In the episode we'll be covering the following;

-Overview of blood gases

-Respiratory & metabolic sides of the gas

-Acidaemia

-Alkalaemia

-Bicarbonate or base excess?

-Compensation

-Oxygenation

-Anion gaps

-System of interpretation

-Venous gases

-Clinical application & examples of interpretation

We'll be referring to the equation listed on our webpage, so make sure you go and have a look at that and all the references listed.

Once you've listened to the podcast make sure you run through the quiz below to consolidate the concepts covered with some more gas examples and of course get you free CPD certificate for your TheResusRoom portfolio!

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Well this has been a huge month for Emergency Medicine and Critical Care in terms of papers!

We start off looking at REBOA; many resuscitationist's favourite concept or device with the much awaited UK-REBOA trial. What does the paper mean for practice in our Resus Rooms? Is this about to become a key part of trauma management? The paper is fascinating and one of the most though provoking we've discussed in a while.

Next up we look at CROYSTAT-2, another such anticipated trial looking at whether survival could be improved by administering an early and empirical high dose of cryoprecipitate to all patients with trauma and bleeding that required activation of a major hemorrhage protocol.

Finally we look at a paper which describes a taxonomy of key performance errors in intubation and may inform our review and improvement of intubation in the ED.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon & Rob

In this episode we’re going to cover the ‘atraumatic’ or ‘spontaneous’ pneumothoraces and focus on some new key guidelines from the British Thoracic Society which came out in July this year and also look at the relevant evidence on the topic.

There are pretty significant changes in the BTS guidance, it’s no longer about finding a pneumothorax, working out if it’s primary or secondary and then acting dependant on the size. It's now moved more towards looking at how the patient is clinically, taking into account the symptomatology, any big risk characteristics, whether it’s primary or secondary and then thinking about the patients wishes and priorities and nuancing the management plan towards those. 

This episode builds on some of the concepts we discussed in our Traumatic Pneumothorax podcast, so make sure you give that one a listen before clicking play on this one!

We'll be looking at the presentation, evidence, management and follow up, along with some trials that you can get involved in to help develop practice even further.

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back!

This month we kick off looking at an RCT which looks at whether we should convey patients with a ROSC from a likely cardiac cause (without a STEMI in their ECG) to a cardiac arrest centre, or whether they would be as well served at their local Emergency Department. This paper has huge potential implications for service design for cardiac arrest patients.

Next up we look at another RCT evaluating if patients with a suspected uncomplicated appendicitis who have urgent surgical intervention benefit in terms of a reduced perforation rate, when compared with those who have surgery within 24 hours.

Lastly we take a look at the use of bicarbonate, calcium and magnesium in cardiac arrest and see if there use is supported in a huge cardiac arrest registry.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon & Rob

Delivering excellent End of Life Care in the Emergency Care is a real challenge but also a huge privilege and has formed some of the most rewarding parts of our careers to date.

We've been really keen to End of Life Care as a topic for a while now. Many, if not all of you, will have been out to these patients or received them in your ED. 

They aren’t simple cases to manage, with lots of issues around scope of practice, lack of alternative care pathways, confusion surrounding legal documentation and many studies have identified a lack of education around palliative care.

In this episode we’ll do our best to demystify those medico-legal terms, talk about care pathways and options that may be available to us, have a think about how we can talk with patients about death and then go on to discuss the clinical care we might need to deliver and the wider holistic nature of caring for these patients and their loved ones.

We're lucky enough to be joined by Ed Presswood, who's a palliative care consultant and clearly an expert on the topic. We gained a massive amount from this episode and we hope you find it really useful too.

You'll find the hyperlinks to some fantastic resources on the topic over on the webpage at TheResusRoom.

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to the podcast, coming to you all the way from Australia!

Rob and James were fortunate enough to be invited to deliver the keynote and an airway masterclass at this year's Australian College of Paramedicine International Conference.

At what was an amazing meeting, they were lucky enough to be able to catch up with some of the fantastic speakers to hear the key parts of their talks. In this episode you'll hear from;

Richard Armour, Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance Paramedic at Ambulance Victoria and PhD Candidate at Monash University; Identifying patients requiring chest compressions at overdose prevention sites

Nick Roder, MICA Flight Paramedic Educator, Ambulance Victoria and Teaching Associate, Monash University; Intubation in the setting of airways and inhalation burns

Dr Tegwyn McManamny, Intensive Care Paramedic and Lead Patient Review Specialist, Ambulance Victoria; Care of the Older Person - Delirium and Paramedic Detective

Olivia Hedges, Palliative Care Connect Lead, Ambulance Victoria; Palliative Care Connect Program

Chelsea Lanos, Advanced Care & Community Paramedic Researcher; Organ donation after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Canada - a potential role for paramedics

A huge thanks to ACP for the invite, Zoll for the support of the podcast and conference and to the fantastic speakers for giving ip their time to talk to us. We'll be back with another Roadside to Resus episode for you next week on End of Life Care.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom and we'll see you back in September!

Rob & James

Welcome back to the podcast!

We're back with three really interesting papers after our summer break, with some great points to think about with regards to our practice and patient outcomes.

First up we take a look at the CT FIRST study which looks at the benefit of whole body CT in patients presenting with a ROSC after their out of hospital cardiac arrest with no obvious cause. Should we be more liberal in our imaging requests in this patient cohort?

Next up we have a think about thrombolysis for massive PEs. When it comes to these patients we have to consider the very real potential complications of thrombolysis and that can often dissuade us from treating them. This paper looks at an alternative dose in thrombolysis and describes some really interesting results.

Finally we take a look at a CT study which is scanning trauma patients after they have died. What injury patterns do they find, which injuries would have been amenable to treatment and are there any lessons on practice to be learnt?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom and we'll see you back in September!

Simon & Rob

Welcome back, this is our last podcast before our short summer break!

We start off having a look at the physiological effects of prolonged resuscitation with a supraglottic device compared with endotracheal intubation, which raises some really interesting questions about our ongoing ventilation strategy in resuscitations.

Next up we look at an RCT comparing RSI to DSI in critically injured patients and the effect on peri-intubation hypoxia.

Finally we take a look at the practice of lateral canthotomy for retrobulbar haemorrhage/orbital compartment syndrome. How effective is the procedure and how competent are EM clinicians compared to Opthalmogists?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom and we'll see you back in September!

Simon & Rob

So in this episode we’re going to run though the primary survey in trauma. This clinical assessment helps us identify and treat life threatening injuries and to rapidly intervene and correct them, so getting it right really matter1. 

How this is done is hugely dependant upon the setting (either pre or in-hospital) as it is affected by the access to the patient, the number of people there to contribute to care and the challenges that the scene or hospital environment might hold.

We run through a model of primary survey that looks to gain as much information as possible in a rapid and effective pattern and discuss the slightly different approaches we all take, along with  rationale behind them.

Finally we cover the communication of the primary survey to the team, strategies that we can undertake to achieve this and how this can affect the momentum and onwards care of the patient. 

We found this a really useful topic to consider in some depth and we hope it's of use to you too!

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

There have been some huge trials released over the last month and we've got three brilliant papers to discuss!

First up we take a look at an RCT on video versus direct laryngoscopy for patients requiring emergency intubation with the DEVICE trial. The VL versus DL debate has been ongoing for quite some time now, so is this a final nail in the coffin for DL?

Next up we take a look at an RCT of prehospital TXA use in patients at risk of bleeding from major trauma in the PATCH trial. The results seen in the trial look at a glance to oppose those seen in CRASH-2, so is this the end of TXA in this cohort of patients?

Finally we have a great paper giving us further information on whether we should we be initiating immediate antihypertensive treatment for patients admitted to hospital with asymptomatic hypertension.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

This is the first of two episodes looking at pneumothoraces. In this episode we're going to start out by taking a look at traumatic pneumothoraces.

Traumatic pneumothoraces are present in about a fifth of multiple trauma patients, so it's not infrequent to come across them and they can obviously occur in those with isolated chest injury too. Thoracic trauma occurs in around two thirds of multi-trauma cases and is classified as the primary cause of death in a quarter of trauma patients.

The clinical assessment carries with it a fair amount of dogma, including looking for tensions with tracheal deviation, so we'll be running through what the signs we should look for actually mean.

Then we'll move on to a detailed discussion about investigation strategies before finally looking at the guidelines and evidence on the topic, including which we have to intervene with, which we probably shouldn't and those in which there is much uncertainty...

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

ps; if you’re interested in getting your site involved with the CoMITED Trial then email [email protected] 

Welcome back to the podcast and to the first episode in collaboration with our new sponsors Zoll, a huge thanks to them in their support of free open access medical education!

First off this month we return to the topic of rib fractures; with an apparent shift in practice to the surgical fixation of multiple rib fractures, we take a look at an early vs late approach and consider the impact these results may have on trauma systems.

Next up it's a prehospital RCT assessing the use of a prehospital strategy including a single troponin to rule out acute coronary syndrome. Will this prove safe when compared to an in hospital strategy and what impact does it have on prehospital resources?

Finally we look at ventilation rates in cardiac arrest management. For as long as we can remember the guidance has been to ventilate at ten breaths per minute, but will a strategy involving a faster ventilatory rate yield better results?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

The last time we took a good look at head injuries was back in 2018 in our Roadside to Resus episodes and for all of the foundational stuff on incidence, assessment, management and loads more  make sure you go and check that episode out. 

But this episode is one of our new UPDATES episodes, because we’re pretty old now… and whilst we’ve been having a go at this for a while evidence and guidelines will have progressed, which clearly have implications on how we manage certain cases and that’s where these come in! So they’ll focus mainly on the last 5 years of practice.

The new NICE head injury guidance has just been released and it’s the first major overhaul since 2014.  Now we know it’s a UK guideline, but there’s some really key practice updates and evidence in there that’s relevant irrespective of where you find yourself listening this! 

So in this episode we're going to be having a look at the most recent TXA evidence, with in terms of indications, timing and dosing. We'll be having a look at the risk of intracerebral injury with regards to anticoagulants and antiplatelet agents and a few other bits and pieces that can help us inform and improve our care.

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

This month we start off with a paper looking at the first pass success rate of intubation in cardiac arrest when performing continual CPR versus pausing.

We then come on to two really interesting diagnostic papers and our prehospital accuracy for identifying certain injuries; we take a look at the accuracy of HEMS clinicians in assessing the stability of a pelvic ring and subsequent application of a pelvic binder. And then we look at the accuracy of prehospital clincians in assessing for all life and limb threatening injuries.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

Being in a situation of being unable to intubate and unable to oxygenate is an absolute time critical emergency. 

Focus needs to be paid to the techniques and strategy to deal with this situation. But we also need to consider steps to ensure it occurs at a low frequency and our decision making and recognition of the situation happens quickly and simply.

In the episode we’re going to be talking about a number of other aspects that are relevant for all emergency providers, irrespective of whether you intubate or not, along with how those aspects translate into everyday practice. 

We'll be covering bits around patient positioning, optimising simple ventilation via a BVM & supraglottics, all the way through to needle cricothyroidotomy and surgical airways.

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to the podcast!

This month we start off thinking about sepsis, specifically fluid management and whether a restrictive approach to fluid resuscitation in combination with earlier vasopressors is advantageous over a liberal approach.

Next we have a look at a study evaluating the diagnostic benefit of ultrasound in the prehospital setting.

Finally we have a think about the benefit that traumatic brain injury patients may benefit from with regards to beta blocker therapy.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

So NOF's aren't the most glamorous of topics to cover on a podcast, but the difference we can make to patients but refining our care is huge. 

Neck of femur fractures have a high and increasing incidence. They occur predominantly in frail patients who have the greatest risk of complications, both from the injury and medical interventions. 

In this episode we'll be running through their presentation, discuss both the clinical and radiological diagnostics. We'll also be looking in depth about both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods of pain relief and have a think about where fascia-iliaca compartment blocks sit with regards to pre and in- hospital practice. 

Finally we'll move on to the definitive surgical approach and in-hospital care.

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to the podcast!

ECMO-CPR is a growing conversation in the world of cardiac arrest management. This month we have a look at a paper which adds some great evidence to the overall picture; with an RCT on ECPR in refractory of out of hospital cardiac arrest. How will this compare to the amazing results from the ARREST trial?

Next up is a really informative paper looking at the utility of ultrasound in suspected testicular torsion in children, this may make a difference to your investigation strategy.

Lastly we look a a paper describing the journey of a quality improvement project on paramedic intubation and see the phenomenal results that the method led to.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

So in this episode we’re going to be covering crush injury. 

When you think about it, visions of falling rocks, industrial accidents and high speed RTCs may come to mind, but actually a crush injury can be sustained in a huge variety of ways without such vivid circumstances.

Definitions according to the Faculty of Prehospital Care are that;

‘A crush injury is a direct injury resulting from crush. 

Crush syndrome is the systemic manifestation of muscle cell damage resulting from pressure or crushing’

So in the episode we’re going to run through all of the bits that we normally cover, from pathophysiology, to presentation and onto treatment. We'll also be looking at the controversy and evidence behind tourniquet use, fluid therapy, electrolyte management and much, much more!

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back!

Three more papers for you this month to inform and improve our care in acute and critical illness.

First up and following on from the recent DoseVF paper, we take a look at a study looking at the combined effect of vector change, esmolol and capping adrenaline administration in refractory VF with regards patient out ones. Could this be associated with even better patient outcomes?

Secondly we take a look at the utility of fentanyl lozenges in providing effective analgesia to patients in remote settings. Does this have potential for both prehospital and in-hospital patients prior to iv access.

Finally we cover a paper looking at prehospital management of acute behavioural disturbance; the need for restraint, the need for sedation and the subsequent effects on the patients.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

Welcome back to our first Roadside to Resus episode for 2023!

We're back with the huge topic that is COPD. In this episode we're going to delve into the depths of the topic, helping us to deliver the best possible care for this frequently encountered presentation.

Along with the standard coverage from incidence, to pathophysiology, to presentation and treatment, we'll also be covering those topics that you've specifically asked for;

• The mechanism behind hypercapnoeic respiratory failure, in those patients given to much oxygen
• Is there a role for end tidal CO2 interpretation in those spontaneously ventilating in acute exacerbations of COPD
• How do we tease out those for home care versus those that require hospital admission
• What is the role of Magnesium in these patients

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome to 2023 and a very happy New Year!

We hope you managed to get some time with your loved ones over the festive period and we're back with the podcast again to kick off the new year.

First up, we take a look at a paper assessing whether there is benefit to treatment with thrombolytics or anticoagulants for patients in cardiac arrest due to a presumed MI.

Next up we look at the potential harm in administering steroids to patients with COVID-19 nor requiring supplemental oxygen.

Finally, we take a look at a paper assessing the potential use of point of care lactate in predicting the need for in-hospital blood product resuscitation.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

So following on from our Bradycardia episode, we're going to look in detail at cardiac pacing.

Setting up emergency pacing in those compromised bradycardia patients can make a significant difference to patient outcomes, and doing so in a timely and slick fashion can be a real challenge.

In this episode we'll be discussing all forms of pacing, strategies for ensuring the greatest likelihood of success and the details of setup and analgesia/sedation strategies for external pacing.

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to 200th episode of the podcast! A huge thank to all of you for your support and engagement.

Three more papers for you this month to challenge thinking across a board range of Emergency Care. First up we take a look at DOSE VF, an RCT look at the best defibrillation strategy for refractory VF.

Next we take a look at another RCT looking at the potential benefit of dexamethasone, in order to reduce pain in patients suffering with renal colic.

Last up, we've talked a lot about the importance of first pass success in advanced airway management, but what (if any) is the association with mortality in prehospital RSI?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

Acute Behavioural Disturbance (ABD), one of the most challenging, dangerous and serious presentations that we will encounter in emergency management of patients.

There is no widely accepted definition of ABD. Really it’s an umbrella term for a patient presenting with a triad of features, secondary to a specific underlying cause, made up of;

• Delirium
• Severe agitation and aggressive behaviour
• Autonomic dysfunction

In this episode we're going to run through ABD, it's causes, the approach and investigation. Excellent management of these cases relies upon high quality team working, planning, communications and strategies to keep all involved safe and we'll be discussing each of those in turn.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to the podcast and to November's Papers Of The Month.

First up we're taking a look at a paper that challenges the current American Heart Association (AHA) and European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines that recommend when right ventricular myocardial infarction, that patients are not administered nitrates due to the risks of compromise of cardiac output. 

Secondly we look at an RCT, with some really clever blinding, that looks at different BP targets for intubated and ventilated patients in ICU who have sustained a cardiac arrest.

Finally we take a look at a paper focussing on healthcare professionals’ perceptions  of interprofessional teamwork in the emergency critical incidents.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

We’ve covered tachycardias, both narrow and broad before, but we need to complete the set.  So this time we’ll be looking at the slower end of the spectrum, with bradycardias.

Bradycardias can be a physiological state in athletes, but they can also be of significant concern.

They occur due to a multitude of reasons, some cardiac and some not and they can require no treatment at all right up to those peri-arrest patients where you’ll be cracking open your critical care drugs and starting to pace them externally before getting them to definitive care.

In this episode we take an in-depth look at the cause, electrophysiological pathways, assessment and treatments for bradycardias.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to the podcast!

First up this month we're going have a think about fluid therapy, following an RCT focussing on those patients attending ED with moderate severity acute pancreatitis; are we flooding them with fluid & should we ease off?

Next we take a look at a paper evaluating the intubation performances between CCPs and physicians in prehospital anaesthesia of trauma patients.

Lastly we look at another RCT, this time comparing the benefit of surgical versus conservative management of significant chest wall trauma.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Despite all the improvements that we have seen in trauma care over the past 20 or more years RTCs are still, sadly, a really common cause of both death and disability, with the number of deaths annually in the UK sitting somewhere between 1500-1900 per annum.

Survivors, who have serious injuries and are left with ongoing disabilities, total 22,000 people per year.

So anything we can do to improve care to these patients is definitely worth looking at and learning about!

Extrication is the process of injured (or potentially injured) patients being removed from vehicles involved in road traffic collisions. The fundamentals behind extrication have been based upon protecting the spine and not worsening an injury of it, but at the potential cost of other time critical injuries and with limited to no sound evidence base.

The EXIT project brings evidence to the practice of extrication and in this podcast we discuss the findings and implications for practice with the lead author Tim Nutbeam, Clare Bosanko (an EM & PHEM consultant) along with the three of us.

We also get the opportunity to hear from Freddie, a patient extricated from a high energy RTC and hear his perspective on Extrication.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to the podcast!

It's brilliant to be back after our summer break and we've got three great papers for you.

First up we take a look at a paper looking at the association the a geriatric assessment can make on the mortality of patients aged 65 years and older, admitted with significant injuries to our UK major trauma centres.

Next up we take a look at a newly proposed method to simple chest compressions in cardiac arrest, by comparing it to chest and abdominal compression and decompressions.

Finally we take a look at the diagnosis and management of TMJ dislocations and guarantee there will be a new technique in there for all of you!

Simon & Rob

Welcome back! This month we take a look at 3 papers covering the breadth of Emergency Care.

First up we look at a paper evaluating outcomes for patients discharged on scene by an EMS service; how many reattend ED, how many require ICU care and what is the associated mortality rate?

NEXUS and Canadian c-spine rules both incorporate the presence of c-spine tenderness when deciding whether to image the neck as a result of trauma. But what is the prevalence of c-spine tenderness without trauma and how might that affect our clinical assessment?

Finally we take a look at a paper focussing on the risk of laryngospasm in paediatric sedation; what is the risk, which factors make it more likely to occur, and what can we do to mitigate it's risk?

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

So when people talk about patients having a high lactate we think about them being sick, it can at times be easy to slip into thinking that this equals sepsis or maybe ischaemia. And whilst the presence of a high lactate in the context of infection and ischaemia is important to note, there is a lot more to interpreting a raised lactate than may first be apparent...

So in this episode we’re going to delve down into lactate, have a think about what it is, what normal and raised levels are, consider the mechanisms behind it’s formation and breakdown and think about the causes of raised lactate. We'll then put this all together and have a think about how we can interpret and lactate levels ensuring we give the best treatment to our patients!

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

So, as we all know, there are loads of presentations that we see in Emergency Medicine that require us to gain rapid access to the circulation. Either to administer medicines around the body or to get fluids into the circulation.

Now there’s a number of different ways we can get them into the circulatory system for them then to get to their sites of action, each of which comes with its pros and cons. There’s buccal, inhaled, intramuscular, sublingual, intranasal etc etc….

But, in the vast majority of cases we gain this access to the vasculature through intravenous access and a peripheral cannula. That means that iv access is a very common procedure in emergency care. The great news is that the equipment is cheap, there are multiple sites for insertion and it’s often feasible regardless of the patients age or presenting complaint. Compared to all the other options for drug administration, iv access and administration of drugs via the IV route, results in 100% bioavailability of all medicines because it avoids the first pass metabolism in the liver, and distribution around the body is rapid because it bypasses the need for absorption into the vasculature.

So that’s all good, so why are we doing an episode on intraosseous access then? Well, iv access and we as clinicians, are not infallible. And as we’re all too aware, gaining IV access can be challenging. There are other patient factors to like iv drug use, the morbidly obese and paediatric patients when everything is just smaller and more unfamiliar. So all of these factors increase the technical difficulty of iv cannulation. If we add to that some of the environmental issues we might find in the prehospital setting - so poor lighting or difficult patient access, it’s not a huge leap to realise that it would be great to have an alternative vascular access option available to a broad range of emergency care providers. And this is where IO access comes in.

So what will we be covering in this episode;

-A recap on the anatomy of bones

-Indications for IO access

-The evidence on IO access and administration

-Insertion site

-Needle selection

-Contraindications

-Case examples

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to June '22 papers podcast!

This month we start off with a look at rocuronium dosing in RSI; could a simple change of dosage lead to an increased first pass success for our intubations?

Next up we take a look at the use of TXA in trauma, with specific focus on gender based inequality in its use and a trial with shocking results.

Finally we take a look at a paper focussing on outcomes of cardiac arrest and cut-off points with regards to duration of resuscitation; could this help answer that ever-difficult question of when to stop?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

We talk a lot about the different skills involved in the management of the critically unwell patient; CPR, airway management, defibrillation, chest drains, RSI etc, etc…..but there is another aspect which is arguably as important and that is the non-technical skills involved in resuscitation.

In this podcast we discuss non-technical skills, followership, leadership and different models of working. What’s really important to remember in this episode is that at the centre of  leadership and follwership is a patient, or patients, that we’re trying to deliver the best care and outcomes for and that effective leadership and followership are key to achieving.

Now leadership and followership comes in a variety of places but for this episode we’re mainly going to look at the importance and way in which leadership and follower ship manifests itself in high acuity cases such as traumas and cardiac arrests but the concepts are translatable to all sorts of cases and parts of healthcare.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to May's papers of the month!

First up this month we'll be looking at an RCT focussed on prehospital intra-arrest management and comparing an early move in arrest towards ECMO-CPR and invasive treatment, versus remaining on scene continuing ALS until achieving a ROSC. Does E-CPR hold the promise we are hoping for?

Next up we take a look at another RCT on pad placement for electrical Cardioversion-BMI of AF, are antero-posterior pads superior to the standard antero-lateral position?

Finally we look at the potential for remote supervision of pre-hospital ultrasound, has technology moved the bar in what can be achieved?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

We have been wanting to do an episode on aortic dissections for quite a while now but you will see that what we’ve actually gone and done is created an episode on acute aortic syndromes…so we’ve done a great job of staying on point straight from the off!

In fairness, we’ve done this because it turns out that there are actually a few different potentially life threatening acute aortic conditions which we need to know about and getting them all into one episode seemed achievable, so let’s see how we get on with that!

Hopefully in this podcast we will try and improve your knowledge of these conditions and we’ll also discuss a couple of cases to bring out some key points.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to April ‘22 papers of the month podcast!

We start off this month with a paper looking at the effect of a structured airway course on first pass success in novice and HEMS clinicians.

Next up we take a look at the much discussed RePHILL trial; do packed red blood cells and lyoplas lead to better outcomes in patients with traumatic hypovolaemic shock?

Finally we take a look at the topic of over-diagnosis and a paper that has made us think and reflect really hard on our practice of Emergency Medicine!

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

Debrief is an extremely important topic both in the prehospital and in-hospital environment. It offers the opportunity to clarify, reflect and improve on future practice. But partaking in and running a debrief can be challenging. So in this episode we'll be exploring debrief in a lot more detail.

We'll be covering both hot and cold debriefs, frameworks for debriefing and tips on what works well, as well as what sometimes doesn't.

To celebrate International Women's Day 2022 we have handed over the mics to three incredible colleague;

Gemma Richmond has worked for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service for 20 years. She joined as an Emergency medical technician and spent 10 years working on a DCA. She then took a full time position with the Yorkshire Hazardous Area Response Team and during that time qualified as a paramedic and remained there for 8 years. She is now currently seconded to work on the Yorkshire Air Ambulance as a HEMS paramedic

After leaving full time military service Clare Fitchett qualified as a Paramedic with South Central Ambulance Service in 2013. She joined Thames Valley Air Ambulance in 2018 and has been working as a trainee and then qualified Critical Care Paramedic since.

Finally Vicki Brown, who has been in the ambulance service for 20 years. She became a HEMS paramedic in 2006, joined Great Western Air Ambulance in 2012 and is currently working as an Advanced Practitioner Critical Care.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to March '22 Papers Podcast!

This month we have a think about causes and coping strategies for Emergency Clinicians involved in stressful cases; what can trigger us and more importantly what can we do to mitigate these circumstances?

In our other two papers we have a think about ECMO-CPR and Resuscitative Thoracotomy, both relatively low frequency but high skill interventions. The papers look at outcomes and case selection and can give us more information about service setups and challenges, and also offer us an opportunity to mentally mode how we can best prepare and decision make in these cases.

Simon & Rob

But for those of you that have already listened, here we go with the bigger brother and even more exciting broad complex tachycardia episode!! Again we’ll be covering everything from the underlying electrophysiological abnormality, all the way through to the assessment and treatment of patients with these life threatening presentations.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

This month we’ve got three papers covering a wide variety of topics and practice in emergency care.

First up we’ll be looking at whether pre-charging the defibrillator prior to rhythm analysis in cardiac arrest can decrease our hands-off time.

Next we take a look at a paper that can help inform our assessment and investigation of trauma patients; looking at the risk of concomitant injuries with regards to specific levels of spinal trauma.

Finally have a think about how different methods of extrication affect spinal movements from road traffic collisions; will it make a difference to your extrication method and speed?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

So in this episode we run through narrow complex tachycardias, not I hear you say a perfect visual topic for an audio platform like a podcast, but hold your horses…

No matter what your level, or your depth of understanding of narrow complex tachycardias, we really hope this will offer some extra knowledge and contemplation for both those of you, like us, that have been treating patient with NCT for decades, right through to those of you that are completely new to the topic.

We run through all the normal stuff like definitions, clinical context and electrical pathways. Then we have a think about those terms and concepts like node dependance, AVRT, AVNRT, WPW etc, and then we come back to the fundamentals of delivering excellent care and how we can use a structure of interpretation to decide how best to treat our patient both pre and in-hospital. 

We’ve tried to really nail down and describe some of the concepts in a way that should make this topic a lot easier to understand and most importantly help us all deliver excellent care.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Happy New Year!

Well we’ve got three really excellent papers to start off your new year with!

First up we take a look at the complication rates seen when performing a prehospital thoracostomy; how frequent are complications and what could this information hold in improving our ongoing practice?

Next up we take a look at an RCT on the use of Calcium in the context of cardiac arrest. Can it’s inotropic and vasopressor effects translate into better outcomes for our patients?

Lastly we take a look at another excellent RCT comparing the use of a bougie to a stylet in adult emergency intubations; which will lead to a great first pass success and will the results lead to a change in or practice and teaching?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

Critically unwell patients often present with inadequate oxygenation and ventilation, in this episode we’re going to explore some of the physiology of critical illness, look at how we can improve oxygenation and ventilation, take a look mechanical ventilation and have a think about how we can deliver this to a really high level.

We’ll be covering the following;

• Type 1 & 2 respiratory failure
• Breathing assessment
• Optimising patients own ventilation
• Mechanical ventilation
• Modes of ventilation
• Setting up a ventilator; tidal volume, RR, FiO2, I:E ratios, dead space
• End tidal CO2
• Optimising oxygenation & ventilation
• Hand ventilation
• Ventilation in cardiac arrest

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to December’s paper of the month podcast!

In the first paper this month we take a look at a paper that assesses the utility of CT scans for patients presenting with fever of an unknown origin; could this help us identify the source more frequently and if so how often?

Next, we often focus on the specific of medical management in cardiac arrest, but what impact does witnessing a cardiac arrest have on bystanders and could this affect the way we interact and behave on scene?

Lastly we consider those patients that require a prehospital anaesthetic following return of spontaneous circulation from a medical cardiac arrest. Does the choice of induction agent between midazolam and ketamine affect the likelihood of hypotension and other complications?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

Being involved in Emergency Care, by it’s very nature, sadly means that we will have to break bad news to patients and families both in the prehospital & in-hospital setting.

Breaking bad news well has benefits to both the recipient of that news and also to the provider delivering it. Teaching and education on the topic can be difficult to access and not always prioritised.

In this episode we run through some of the evidence around breaking bad news, techniques and structures to follow and talk about the practicalities of adopting these, along with our own varied personal thoughts and styles.

We hope listening to the podcast gives you an opportunity to reflect on how we could all work and improve on breaking bad news and also helps to make the process a little bit easier.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to the papers of the month podcast!

First up we take a look at a paper assessing the importance of symptoms and sings in suspected Cauda Equina cases and consider which factors we should be giving weight to, including whether a PR is appropriate.

Next up we take a look at a paper looking at electrical injuries presenting to the Emergency Department, the risk of significant injury and the appropriate investigations to perform on both high and low energy voltage injuries.

Lastly we take a look a paper looking at the use of vasopressin and steroids in in-hospital cardiac arrest and see what effect in has in the latest RCT.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

So following on from the Roadside to Resus episode on intubation there were a lot of questions from listeners that we didn't have the opportunity to answer. These included some clinical aspects and also some really tricky issues around competency, governance and importantly who should and shouldn't be intubating.

We've separated this out from the main episode as a lot of the conversations are heavily opinion based and only our view on the topic. 

This is our first episode of this style and we'd love to hear any comments or feedback and also know if this is something you'd like to hear again for future topics.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Intubation is a key part of advanced airway management.

Although some of you out there may not intubate, we’ll be covering aspects where the identification of the need for intubation and how contributing as a team to the process can make a real difference to patient outcomes.

Intubation is subject of a considerable amount of evidence and debate. Increasing use of supraglottic airways both in theatre and in cardiac arrest creates a situation in which there are limited opportunities to train and learn the skill. This brings into question who should these limited opportunities to train go to, what defines competence, which patients now would benefit from intubation.

In this episode we’re going to cover these topics and more, including talking through how to fine your intubation technique as much as possible. We’re coming at this episode with our collective neonatal, ED and PHEM practice which all involve advanced airway management and it’s fair to say that we’re all passionate about delivering intubation and advanced airway management to the highest level possible. 

We hope this episode gives a further opportunity to consider the topic in great depth and reflect upon how we can all contribute to improving practice.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome to October’s papers of the month!

Should patients who gain a ROSC following an out of hospital cardiac arrest go for an immediate angiogram if their ECG does not show an STEMI or Left Bundle Branch Block? We’ve looked at this before with the COACT trial which only looked at those patients with a shockable rhythm but this months paper looks at all ROSCs from all rhythms.

Next up we take a look at a paper that investigates senior paramedics decision making in cessation of cardiac arrests and think further about the decision making that goes into these complex decisions.

Finally we take a look at a huge trial assessing the use of balanced fluids versus Normal Saline in critically ill patients and gain more information about the strategy we should employ.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

So this time we're going to be looking at the HUGE topic of acute coronary syndrome (ACS)! ACS ranges from patients who appear well at the time of their presentation, to those that have arrhythmias, haemodynamic instability, to those that are in cardiac arrest!

There are around three quarters of a million ED chest pain attendances per year for acute chest pain and it accounts for around 25% of ED medical admissions!!

Some of the treatments we’ll discuss for patients with ACS can have a huge affect on morbidity and mortality and we can make a real difference to our patients. The ESC guidelines are a fantastic resource to take a look at and we've listen the papers that form the evidence we cover in the podcast.

We worry about missing ACS and conversely, with so many ‘suspected ACS patients’, we also worry about overly suspecting it and the subsequent burden of admissions and investigations that it may mean. We’re going to cover the approach to ACS in this episode in our standard format, all the way from definition, patho-physiology, assessment, investigations and management and cover aspects that are both new information and a sound revision of the topic.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back after our summer hiatus to September’s Papers Podcast!

Firstly we take a look at two different strategies for managing agitation in the Emergency Department, to achieve rapid control. Is haloperidol and midazolam, or ketamine alone, a better strategy?

Then we take a look at the results from RECOVERY-RS. We covered the design of the trial at it’s conception last year and this trial essentially looks to answer whether a strategy of high flow nasal oxygenation, CPAP or conventional oxygenation is best for our patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 when they present with hypoxia.

Lastly we turn to Rob and take a look at his recent publication on the use of cervical collars when dealing with a patient able to self extricate from a motor vehicle collision; how will the application of a collar or commands help with excessive movement?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Welcome to August 2021’s papers podcast!

Three more great papers for you this month which have challenged and informed our practice.

First up we look Impact of ambulance deceleration with patients lying flat vs 30 degrees head up on intracranial pressure in patients with a head injury.

Next, is a patient with a refractory VF arrest more likely to have a positive finding on coronary angiography than one with non-refractory VF?

And finally, in patients with blunt chest wall injury, does the presence of a flail chest indicate a worse morbidity and mortality compared to rib fractures alone? And what do the findings mean for our clinical examination focus?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

We're giving you all a summer break from us and we'll be back again with our Papers of the Month and Roadside to Resus episodes in September.

Enjoy!

Simon and Rob

So welcome back to another Roadside to Resus episode!

Pre alerts are a key part of the interface between pre hospital and in hospital care of the critically unwell patient, when made and received in an effective manner they can really benefit the patient and the system. But too often we hear of friction associated with pre alerts and recent discussions on social media has really highlighted this.

In this episode we explore the pre alert, the guidance that exists already on the topic, the challenges of both making and receiving those pre alerts and our four major questions; why we pre alert, what we should pre alert, how to pre alert and when to pre alert.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Another month and 3 more papers!

First up we have a look at a paper that has grabbed a lot of recent headlines in the form of TTM2. So we now seem to have the answer to whether comatose patients following out of hospital cardiac arrest benefit from therapeutic hypothermia over maintenance of normothermia.

Next up we take a look at a paper which adds some real value to our assessments of maxillofacial injuries and can help inform our assessment of the likelihood of fracture and need for imaging.

Lastly we take a look at the whether iv vs io access in cardiac arrest might make a difference to outcomes when it comes to the use of adrenaline.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon and Rob

So this time we're going to be talking about subarachnoid haemorrhage. So this is going to be a short and punchy look at a really important and interesting topic in subarachnoid haemorrhage.

We run through the approach to headache and then focus on the specific features and findings that we should be looking for with regards subarachnoid haemorrhage. We then consider who we should be investigating further, what value a CT head brings and the sticky subject of who should be going on to have a lumbar puncture.

Finally we consider the the management once the diagnosis of SAH is reached and how we can ensure the best outcomes for our patients.

At the time of recording NICE has published its draft version of Subarachnoid Haemorrhage Caused by a Ruptured Aneurysm; diagnosis and management, which will be a great resource once finalised.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

This month we've got three papers that have challenged our practice both from an in-hospital and pre-hospital perspective.

Firstly we consider a paper that looks at admission saturations for patients with exacerbations of COPD and compare this to the BTS guidance on oxygen therapy, regarding altering oxygen saturations for those proven not to be hypercapnoeic. Should we be aiming for 88-92% or 94-98%?

Next we look at a paper from the team at KSS looking at dispatch to older trauma victims and consider whether current triggers for HEMS dispatch are set at the appropriate level to catch those in this cohort that may benefit from critical care interventions.

Lastly we look at a paper evaluating the QRS width in PEA cardiac arrests and consider firstly whether a broad QRS complex is predictive of hyperkalaemia and secondly whether we would treat patients based off this finding?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon and Rob

So the Resuscitation Council UK have today published new guidelines on resuscitation based on the European Resuscitation Council 2021 Guidelines and recommendations from the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation.

We were lucky enough to catch up with two key members of both ERC and RCUK, Gavin Perkins and Jasmeet Soar, gaining their valuable insights into the new guidelines.

As well as this Simon, Rob and James pick out some other key points from the guidelines and discuss how these may translate into systems and practice.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to May's Papers of the Month Podcast!

Three more papers for you on three varied topics. We start off with the use of end tidal carbon dioxide in the content of prehospital head injuries.Taking a look at a paper delving a bit deeper into the utility of end tidal CO2 when compared with arterial CO2 measurements on arrival in ED, in patients having received a prehospital anaesthetic; how accurate is end tidal and what level should we be aiming for?

Next we consider the importance of frailty in the outcomes of our older trauma patients and the ability of three different screening tools in identification of this cohort of high risk patients presenting to our hospitals.

Finally we take a look at a treatment which some prehospital services have already employed and others are considering; the use of CPAP for patients presenting with acute respiratory distress. Does the evidence support its use?

Once again we'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

So last month we considered Maternal Emergencies and the approach and interventions we can make in order to minimise complications during pregnancy and during childbirth. As promised this month we're looking at the next step along the process and focussing on Newborn Life Support.

Dealing with newborns has the potential to be really stressful but hopefully by concentrating on the fundamentals and guidelines we'll all be able to approach the situation with greater confidence.

Let us know any thought and comments you have on the podcast.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Well if last month was based on cardiac arrest, this month takes a deeper look at airways!

First up we take a look at a paper that benchmarks the use of video laryngoscopy, specifically with the C-MAC and gives some really useful information from a Swiss HEMS service on first-pass success, the relevance of operator experience on success and factors that alter intubation success.

Next up we're looking at blood in the airway with epistaxis...okay it's a tenuous link, but it pretty much works! The NOPAC study looks at the use of TXA in atraumatic epistaxis and compare it to placebo use, will TXA come up trumps in this setting?

Finally we take a look at the use of scalpel cricothyroidotomy within the London HEMS service over a 20 year period, with a number of things we can learn from this experience.

Once again we'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

So this is the first of a pregnancy related double-header, with the focus being firmly set on the mother this month and next month we’ll focus in on NLS.

This month though we’re going to be discussing maternal emergencies. Now many conditions that could fall into this category but, as much as we love a good yarn, we really can’t be here all day, so we’ve decided to focus on are the conditions that we are more likely to come across in either prehospital or EM practice. Those conditions in which we can make a really big difference to either the mum or the baby.

We’re talking antepartum haemorrhage, postpartum haemorrhage, cord prolapse, breech presentation and shoulder dystocia, all after we've set the scene on assisting with an uncomplicated delivery.

So what would be really good is if we could find someone to bring in some prehospital maternal experience too. Ideally, someone qualified as a midwidfe and paramedic…and we're incredibly lucky to have just that in Aimee Yarrington, who has joined us for the podcast!

As a background; PPH is the third leading cause of maternal death in the UK and the most common cause of obstetric-related intensive care admissions. APH complicates 3–5% of pregnancies and is a leading cause of perinatal and maternal mortality worldwide. Cord prolapse ranges from 0.1% to 0.6%. Breech presentation occurs in 3–4% of term deliveries. Shoulder dystocia has a reported incidence of around 0.70%. And the incidence of primary PPH continues to rise progressively in the UK, reaching as high as 13.8% in 2012–2013. So there's a good reason for us to be experts on these topics.

Let us know any thought and comments you have on the podcast.

Enjoy!

Simon, James & Aimee

So this month we've got a cardiac-arrest-fest for you! With 3 papers centered on the management of cardiac arrest, with some key points that will help inform and improve our practice.

First up we have a think about where patients with a presumed cardiac cause of their arrest should be transported to. Trauma networks in the UK have changed destinations for patients, but is there a patient benefit transporting this patients to a cardiac arrest centre and if so how much?

Next we look at the potential benefit to nurse-led cardiac arrests with a study that might change some thoughts on how we best run and collaborate our cardiac arrests.

Finally we take a look at an open access paper from SJTREM, looking at the use of serum markers to help us prognosticate in hypothermic cardiac arrest and in these really challenging cases there is some great stuff to take from the paper.

Once again we'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

Welcome back to the podcast and our next Roadside to Resus episode, this time we’re taking a look at Diabetic Ketoacidosis, DKA.

In this episode we’ll be getting our heads around the pathophysiology that underpins DKA, consider the clinical picture and severity of patients that present and look at both the in-hospital and pre-hospital management of these patients including topics such at fluid choice, insulin boluses and nasal ETCO2 for diagnosis of DKA.

Let us know any thought and comments you have.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

So three very different papers for you this month...

We start off having a look at a paper on the HINTS examination. This exam came to prominence a few years ago as a way to distinguish between central and peripheral causes of vertigo with a pretty amazing sensitivity and specificity. Since then many EM clinicians have brought it onto their practice and this paper seeks to assess how good the test is at the bedside in real life practice.

Next up we take a look at a paper assessing the injury patterns in trapped patients and consider the prevalence of injuries both with regard to spinal and other injury patterns and then consider the impact that this holds with respect to extrication.

Finally we have a look at a paper focussing on the inhospitable management of hypertension; the treatment strategies and the outcomes comparing those being treated during their inpatient stay versus this left untreated with some surprising outcomes...

Once again we'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob

So in this episode we’re going to have a deeper think about advanced airway management and specifically supraglottic use in the prehospital and ED environment. 

Many prehospital service have seen the removal of intubation from their scope of practice, and that’s understandably been received with mixed thoughts.

But this isn’t the end of ‘expert advanced airway care for all; in fact far, far from it… we’ve all heard people talking about ‘whacking in an i-gel’, but really utilising a supraglottic device to its maximal potential can make a huge difference to our critically unwell patients. 

We'll be running through an overview of supraglottic devices, the evidence surrounding their use, patient selection, patient positioning and size selection, placing a supraglottic device, troubleshooting and finally ongoing ventilation with a supraglottic device.

We'd love to hear any comments or feedback you have and make sure to take a look at the references and resources below.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Happy New Year!

Well 2020 certainly wasn't what we were all expecting, so here's hoping for a phenomenally better 2021. We've got some really exciting episodes for you this year including Supraglottic Airways, Neonatal Resuscitation, Diabetic Emergencies, New Resuscitation guidelines and much much more!

We're kicking off the podcast year with three really interesting papers!

First up we consider the importance of first pass success of both supraglottic airways and endotracheal intubation in the context of cardiac arrest; a lot of attention has been shone recently on question of which approach we should consider after bag valve mask ventilation, but how important is the first pass of either of the approaches to the outcomes of our patients?

Next up we have a look at a paper that challenges the use of TXA in our patients with a severe traumatic brain injury after the publication of CRASH 3.

Finally we have another look at the mantra of 'GCS 8-intubate' with a systematic review which draws together all of the evidence across the age ranges and both traumatic and non-traumatic presentations.

Make sure you take a look at our new CPD apps on both Android and iOS to log your time listening to this episode.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

So for decades people have talked about Contrast Induced Nephropathy…or Contrast Induced Acute Kidney Injury, depending on the decade and location of discussion. The theory being that diuresis, increased urine viscosity and changes in vasoconstriction and vasodilation leads to a worsening of renal function following iv contrast administration.

It seems to come from the 1950’s where some patients were seen to develop acute kidney injuries following iv contrast. Now times have changed and treatments and contrasts evolved but the discussion around contrast induced nephropathy continues. At times these discussion can mean that some patients wait for scans in the Emergency Department whilst waiting for blood tests to come back first. But is this the right thing to do?

In this episode we take a look at the origins of contrast induced nephropathy, consider some recent publications on the topic and see how this translates to practice and applications of the most recent guidelines.

Reading around the topic has been hugely informative for us and we hope will be of benefit to you too!

Enjoy

Simon & Rob

Welcome back to December's Papers of The Month Podcast! Three more papers for you which will challenge and inform you practice.

First up we have a look at a systematic review and meta-analysis which considers the fluid choice in resuscitating those patients with suspected traumatic brain injury in the prehospital setting; should we be reaching for the hypertonic solutions, or is an isotonic fluid such as normal saline adequate?

Next we take a look at a paper that has received a lot of online discussion which looks at the two approaches of antibiotics or surgery for an appendicitis. This is a randomised control trial that looks to answer a question that the literature has dipped into over the last few years, but this RCT goes that bit further and will help give patients a good idea of the pro's and con's of each approach.

Finally we take a look at the UK national approach to oxygenation strategies in those patients receiving a prehospital emergency anaesthetic. How many clinicians provide PEEP, how commonly implemented is apnoeic oxygenation and do we all ventilate through apnoea? Gaining an understanding as to where our practice sits compared to others gives us the opportunity to consider the potential benefits and downsides of various strategies and may help unify practice to more streamlined working and better outcomes for our patients. We also get the opportunity to hear thoughts on the subject from one of the authors Dr. Amar Amshru, Emergency Medicine and and Pre Hospital Doctor in London and with Kent Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Welcome back to the podcast!

In this episode of Roadside to Resus we're going to take a look Anaphylaxis, which has been highlighted on a national level of concern as NICE state ‘many people do not receive optimal management following their acute anaphylactic reaction’.

Much of the problem lies within a lack of understanding of what actually constitutes an anaphylactic reaction and the knock on effect this has to the treatment provided.

In this episode we'll explore the definition of anaphylaxis and the significant differences that can be seen in the presentation. We have a a think about the pathophysiology and reasons behind the variance in presentations and how this affects the importance of treatments available and their relative importance.

Anaphylaxis is known to have a a number of patients who have a biphasic reaction, it predicates the need to convey patients to hospital and a period of observation; however the frequency and severity of these biphasic reactions can help to inform this further and for that reason we take a look at the literature on it.

We've covered angioedema before in a separate episode, but we briefly cover the similarities and differences and how this affects management.

Lastly we cover the follow up and management that these patients require.

We'd love to hear any comments or feedback you have and make sure to take a look at the references and resources below.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome to November’s papers of the month podcast!

This month we kick things off looking at TXA in trauma and consider in complex scenes and resource limited environments if TXA could be administered effectively in an IM rather than IV route? We also get an authors inside view from Professor Ian Roberts.

Next up; does the anatomical location of a head injury affect the risk of an intracerebral bleed and could this affect those patients that can go without a scan?

And finally we have a look at the importance of a chest X-ray in COVID-19 and consider how accurate the X-ray is at both picking up and ruling out the infection.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob 

So in our Toxidrome Roadside to Resus episode we covered the initial management of a poisoned patient, some of the constellation of features to look out for and the specific management. But what about specific agents and circumstances that require particular knowledge and management both in the prehospital environment and in ED?

Well in this episode we’ll cover these by running through;

• Paracetamol poisoning and treatment
• Calcium channel blocker overdose
• Beta blocker overdose
• High dose insulin euglycaemic therapy
• Activated charcoal
• Intralipid therapy
• Cardiac arrest due to toxicology

We'd love to hear any comments or feedback you have and make sure to take a look at the references and resources below.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to the Papers of the Month podcast, once again we've got 3 more papers to inform, discuss and hopefully improve our practice.

First up we have a look at a paper which looks to quantify the prognostic utility of lactate in our sick Resus patients; we often look at the initial lactates and draw conclusions for what they mean, but this paper helps us understand the results a bit further.

For our patients that sustain a head injury, the NICE guidelines advocate that all patients on direct oral anticoagulants should have a CT head scan, irrespective of clinical findings or other high risk features of the patients history. Quantifying the risk that these patients have for an intracranial bleed is really important, as to date it isn't fully understood. Our second paper looks at this directly and can help inform practice, guidelines and discussions with patients.

Finally; we often think about how we can improve resuscitation of our patients in cardiac arrest, look for the latest treatment and evidence, but it can be easy to overlook how our actions can significantly affect their loved ones who may be present at this time. We take a look at a fascinating study looking at the impact of inviting patients in to witness the resuscitation in its entirety and the effect that this has in regards too PTSD. In our opinion this paper holds a huge amount to think about and is a game changer!

Finally keep an eye out for our CPD portal and app which is in the final stages of testing and will be out very shortly!! We'll be keeping you up to date on twitter @TheResusRoom with its launch Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Drug ingestion both accidental and intentional accounts for a significant proportion of attendances at UK Emergency Departments and 999 calls.

In 2016 there were >2,500 registered deaths in England and Wales related to drug misuse, which had increased by nearly 60% in a decade.

So without a doubt we are all going to come across critically unwell patients with drug ingestions. But inappropriate drug use is not confined to illicit substances, with many prescription drugs being misused to ill effect and also overdosed in an attempt to end patients lives.

In this podcast we’re going to run through the assessment of patients presenting with a possible drug ingestion, cover the potential toxidromes you may encounter and talk about the management of these presentations. Specifically we take a look at serotonin syndrome, sedative toxidrome and both cholinergic and anti-cholinergic syndrome.

In next months Roadside to Resus we'll take a look at specific medications of overdose; paracetamol, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers and the intricacies of their management along with other key parts of critical care including the management of cardiac arrest due to toxicity.

Make sure to take a look at the references and resources below.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back!!

So we've had a small summer hiatus and are now back with another Papers of The Month and a jam packed line up of episodes for the rest of the year!

We start off this month with a paper which looks to evaluate if there is any benefit on mortality with the use of checklists for endotracheal intubation.

Next up we take a look at the factors in cardiac arrest that are most important with regards to prognostication; what should your attention and handover be most focussed upon?

Finally we take a look at a paper suggesting that blood gases following ROSC can help us prognosticate for our patient and how this might this affect our practice.

Finally keep an eye out for our CPD portal and app which is in the final stages of testing and will be out very shortly!! We'll be keeping you up to date on twitter @TheResusRoom with its launch

All references can be found on our webpage at TheResusRoom.co.uk

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

So this is our last episode before a small summer hiatus, so it better be a good one!

Journals are littered with some great articles at the moment, so we've chosen 3 great papers that cover a number of really important EM topics.

Next up we take a look at the Injury Severity Score and how well it correlates with the need for life saving interventions in trauma.

Lastly there is another great paper on the management of acute atrial fibrillation; comparing electrical cardioversion with the potential use of procainamide prior to shocking. Does it result in fewer patients requiring a shock, and when it comes to the shock is AP pad positioning more effective that anterolateral?

We'll be taking a small break over the summer and will be back in September for our next Papers Podcast and keep an eye out for the launch of our FREE CPD app and web platform this summer.

The more you delve into cardiac arrest, the more it seems that delivering the essentials well is the key to great outcomes; timely recognition, high quality chest compressions, with early and appropriate defibrillation.

But is ultrasound in cardiac arrest a layer that we should all be adding in as a standard. It holds the potential to not only prognose outcomes from cardiac arrest, both medical and traumatic, but also to add a level of diagnosis of potentially reversible causes.

In this podcast we chat through the evidence surrounding ultrasound in cardiac arrest and consider the practicalities of application during delivery of patient care.

Make sure to take a look at the references and resources below.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

There are more great pieces of research to enjoy this month!

We start off with a paper following on nicely from our Roadside to Resus episode on Stabbing, which looks at the ability of prehospital providers to predict whether stab injuries penetrate to deep structures, or are purely superficial from clinical assessment.

Next up we take a look at a paper using high sensitivity troponin and their limit of detection, to assess whether we could be safely discharging patients earlier from the emergency department.

Finally we have a look at the results from the RECOVERY group on dexamethasone use in COVID-19, have we got a treatment that can help improve survival in patients admitted with the virus?

We'd love to hear any thought or comments you have either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Tranexamic Acid (TXA) has gained a significant amount of attention over the last few years as multiple studies have shown it's utility in decreasing haemorrhage and associated mortality. It has become part of major trauma guidelines, post part haemorrhage protocols and many have adopted it to the management of traumatic brain injury. The findings have been very similar across a spectrum of haemorrhage disease processes and from this further interest in expanding TXA's application to pretty much anything that bleeds. Time from onset of the bleeding has been shown to be important, with it's effect decreasing from time of onset to its administration.

Gastro-intestinal bleeding is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Previous meta-analyses have shown favourable outcomes for TXA in GI bleeds and many have already adopted TXA into this area of practice, although guidance from NICE does not yet recommend it.

HALT-IT is a multi centre, international, randomised double blind controlled trial of near 12,000 patients that has just been published in the Lancet. The study was a huge piece of work and looks to definitively answer the question of whether we should be giving TXA to patients with life threatening GI bleeds. In this podcast we run through the ins and outs of the paper ad are lucky enough to speak to the lead author Ian Roberts about the findings, some of the intricacies of the trial and what the results mean for practice.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Welcome back to June’s Papers Podcast!

Traditionally when you’re taught about working a patient up for a potential diagnosis you’ll find a list of signs, symptoms and tests that you need to perform in order to obtain your diagnosis. What that teaching doesn’t tell you is how important each of those aspects is and this month we take a deeper look at this for pneumonia. We look two papers, one focussing on the clinical findings both in signs and symptoms and then a further paper on the importance of biomarker in the diagnosis.

We also have a look at a paper which focusses on decreasing time on scene for prehospital patients and the potential benefit of regular time prompts, an idea that may be applicable irrespective of your place and role of work.

We’d love to hear any thought or comments you have either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Transfers of patients happen all the time. It's easy to think about transfers as only those that involve an ambulance and moving patients from one hospital to the next, but in reality it's far more extensive than that. We all move patients all the time, whether that be the unwell patient in the upstairs of their house to the ambulance, the patient in the Emergency Department to the CT scanner or another ward, or the more traditional interhosptal transfer.

Transfers of patients are inherently high risk times for the patient and having some background knowledge on transfers and a structured approach helps us ensure the best possible care for our patients. In this episode we run through transfers with the help of an expert on the topic, Scott Grier a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, the South West Critical Care Network Lead for Transfer, and a PreHospital Critical Care Doctor with GWAAC.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob and James

Welcome to May's papers of the month podcast. Hope you are all well and keeping safe.

This month James joins Simon to discuss some of the great work published following the London Trauma Conference, all available in the hyperlinks on the website.

First up we have a look at the incidence of prehospital hypotension and hypoxia in patients with suspected traumatic brain injury and the ways in which we might look to mitigate against these complications. Next we have a think about end-tidal CO2 levels and the correlation between these and arterial CO2 readings and discuss what the findings might mean for our practice. Finally we have a look at the incidence of hyperoxia in patients receiving a prehospital emergency anaesthetic in the context of trauma, and consider the effect this might have on our patients and again practice.

We'd love to hear any thought or comments you have either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & James

Fractures of the pelvis are found reasonably often in major trauma, but they’re a really challenging presentation. They are difficult to assess and accurately diagnose in the prehospital setting, mortality rates are high, particularly in patients with haemodynamic instability and there are often associated injuries. Associated mortality from patients with pelvic fractures who reach hospital is reported to be up to 19%, with mortality rates as high as 37% reported in the presence of haemodynamic instability.

In this episode we'll run through pelvic injuries, all the way from anatomy and mechanisms of injury, to assessment and management.

As always make sure you have a look at the references and supporting material attached in the show notes, and get in touch with any questions or comments and take care of yourselves.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob and James

So COVID-19 has produced a multitude of challenges to healthcare providers, the response to these challenges has been phenomenal.

One uncertainty is the strategy we should employ for hypoxic respiratory failure and several high quality guidelines have presented conflicting advice for the severely hypoxic patient.

The Warwick Clinical Trials Unit has already begun recruiting patients to their RECOVERY-RS trial, which is open for hospitals in the UK to sign up for. This looks at 3 different strategies of respiratory support for patients admitted with suspected or known COVID-19 and hypoxia; namely CPAP, High-flow nasal oxygen and standard care. The trial is funded by the NIHR and supported by the Intensive Care Society.

In this episode we get a chance to speak to Bronwen Connolly, one of the investigators of the RECOVERY-RS trial; we discuss the background evidence, the trial design, and when results will be available.

As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, and make sure you take a look at the protocol yourself.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

First we hope you're all well. The world has changed dramatically over the the last few weeks and you are all doing a phenomenal job of providing healthcare under extremely challenging circumstances.

We are determined to add a bit of normality to life with a non-COVID-19 papers of the month, full of bad jokes and some EBM. This month we're looking at intubation of acute alcohol intoxication in ED. We take a look at a paper that tries to quantify the risk of patients developing an intracerebral injury when taking antiplatelets and anticoagulants. Finally we have a look at the value of clinical examination and imaging findings in patients with elevated intracranial pressure, how valuable are individual findings?

Most importantly take care of yourselves and loved ones and keep fighting the good fight!

Simon & Rob

Excellent practice is led by following the high quality evidence based medicine, and there have been a lot of great papers published in the last 12 months!

We were kindly invited to the Faculty of Pre Hospital Care Annual Scientific Conference to give a talk on the top 10 papers over the last year.

Sadly, but completely understandably, the conference had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. In this podcast we cover the talk which is based on 2 cases that are common to PHEM;a major trauma and a cardiac arrest, and discuss how we can optimise outcomes for our patients in view of the recent evidence on these areas.

As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, and make sure you take a look at the references and guidelines linked below to draw your own conclusions.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

We've got a great spread of topics for you this month, stretching all the way from Prehospital Critical Care, to core Emergency Medicine topics.

Those of us seeing 'non-specific' complaints will appreciate how difficult they can be to diagnose and manage effectively. We have a look at a paper that helps characterise this group and give some context to their mortality risk. This may well help inform conversations and decision making with this patient group.

Recent literature has looked at a more conservative management for traumatic pneumothoraces, but what about those that are spontaneous? The British Thoracic Society has guidelines for how we should deal with them but a recent RCT in the New England Journal of Medicine looks at an even more conservative approach for our patients; can we decrease the number of aspirations and drains that we are performing?

Finally we've covered recently a paper on the topic of Prehospital Critical Care on the outcomes for patients in cardiac arrest, in this episode we have a look on their impact in trauma patients and hear from the lead author Ali Maddock on the implications of the study's findings.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Figures for the year ending September 2019 showed a 7% rise in offences involving knives or sharp instruments recorded by the police (to 44,771 offences). This is 46% higher than when comparable recording began (year ending March 2011) and the highest on record. 

The news is sadly littered with cases of knife crime and terror and whilst we may have thought of stabbings as confined to small pockets of the country, sadly it now seems that we all have or all will be dealing with such cases.

The variability in injury and severity is vast from stabbings, however in extremis they are completely time critical, and striking the balance between performing only those life saving interventions on scene, during transport and in ED and getting to the final destination of theatre as quickly as possible.

In this podcast we discuss our thoughts on dealing with these cases; from the moment we get that call, all the way through to getting them into theatre.

As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, and make sure you take a look at the references and guidelines linked below to draw your own conclusions.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob and James

Welcome back!

Three very different topics and papers for you this month. First up we have a look at the risk/benefit of sending troponins on patients aged 65 years an older when presenting with non-specific complaints; does this help their work up, or is this a classic case of over-testing?

Next up we take a look at the causes of our patients presenting to the ED with a reduced level of consciousness, this paper may help inform your differentials and knowledge on the likelihood of different pathologies.

Finally, following on from our recent Roadside to Resus episode on Seizures, we take a look at an RCT which compares 3 second line anti epileptics; will this give us the definitive answer over which we should be using?

Once again we would love to hear you comments and feedback, and make sure you check out the articles yourselves and come to your own conclusions.

Enjoy

Simon & Rob

Seizures are defined as a “paroxysmal electrical discharge of the neurones in the brain resulting in a change of function or behaviour”. All of us involved in Emergency Care will encounter patients with seizures which can occur for a number of reasons, with Epilepsy affecting 1 in 100 people in the UK.

Being able to identify the cause, terminate ongoing seizures and provide ongoing investigation and care is complicated and of paramount importance, as some of these episodes carry with them a high morbidity and mortality rate.

In this episode of Roadside to Resus we run through the following;

• The scale of the problem
• Causes of seizures
• Definition of status epilepticus
• Different forms of seizures
• Clinical assessment
• Investigations
• Antiepileptic’s
• Management& guidelines; both Pre and In-hospital
• RSI for status epilepticus
• Follow up and guidance

As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, and make sure you take a look at the references and guidelines linked below to draw your own conclusions.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Happy New Year!!

We hope you've all had a great Christmas and New Year and that you managed to get some well earned time off over the festive period. 

2019 saw us publish more insights from lead authors of the latest and most influential studies in Emergency Medicine and Critical Care, and we're really excited to say that we'll be delivering you even more in 2020 with some excellent RCTs, international guidelines and much, much more!

This month we've got 3 papers to challenge practice across a wide array of practice. We start off with a paper that evaluates if we can change our d-dimer thresholds in suspected PE's and how many unnecessary work ups and scans that might decrease. Next, following on from our previous Hypothermia podcast, we have a look at a paper which looks at the best rewarming rates in patients with hypothermia, which may change your rewarming strategies.... Finally we have a think about our use of CT scanning in patients who gain a ROSC after cardiac arrest, and consider what benefit full body CT scanning might bring.

Thanks to all of you for your support with the podcast over the last year and we look forward to bringing you some great stuff in 2020!

Enjoy

Simon & Rob

REBOA, ECMO, Thoracotomy? Where should we be focussing our attention in the world of Pre-hospital care?

We were lucky enough to be invited to the London Trauma Conference on the Prehospital Day supported by the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation. The day focussed on the areas we can make a real impact to the outcomes of our pre-hospital critical care patients. We grabbed a few minutes time of the following speakers to hear their thoughts;

Introosseous Access; Jerry Nolan

Pre-hospital Blood products; Jostein Hagemo

Communication under pressure; Dr Stephen Hearn

Pre-hospital Critical Care - what should the near future look like? Dr Stephen Rashford

Have a listen and as always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, and take a look at the references below to draw your own conclusions. We'll be back in the new year with monthly episodes of Papers of the Month and Roadside to Resus; have a great Christmas and New Year and we'll speak to you soon!

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

Well the year has flown by and it's already time for December's Papers of the Month Podcast!

Head injuries are a huge work load for those of us involved in Emergency Care. Identifying those at risk of deterioration from a traumatic brain injury is a priority, as early intervention and prognostication can make a huge difference to patient outcomes. CT scanning is relatively easy to access and with it investigation creep has lowered our threshold of investigation and use of radiology resources; first up we have a look at a paper that looks at the potential benefits from employing a number of different guidelines in identifying the patients with traumatic brain injury, whilst comparing the risk of over investigation.

Next up we have a look at the commonly made diagnosis of urinary tract infection in the older population and a review paper that will help you make the right diagnosis when it's present and not over diagnose when not.

Finally we have a think about the potential benefit of a fluid bolus during induction of anaesthesia for our patients undergoing RSI; can a 500 mL fluid bolus prevent cardiovascular collapse? And we also hear the authors insights on the great RCT.

Make sure to get in touch with any comments on any of the reviews, and importantly make sure you check out the papers and draw your own conclusions.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Angioedema is something we'll all encounter in the acute setting, whether we recognise it or not...

Understanding the different causes and mechanisms is imperative to ensuring the patients get treatment that is not only effective, but in extremis potentially lifesaving. In this episode we talk through the condition; from clinical presentation, causative agents, mechanisms of action, differentials and the evidence base of treatment.

Get in touch with any comments on the podcast, ensure to read the papers that are referenced yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

As care on our emergency and urgent care demand is on an ever upwards course, whilst alongside this the scope of what we can potentially deliver to patients is also increasing. In order to meet this demand and to deliver the best care possible to our patients we will need to look for other solutions.

We were lucky enough to be invited to the First Community Emergency at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, hosted by the Physician's Response Unit. This event looked at the current challenges and explored solutions and opportunities for more collaborative working.

In this podcast you'll hear from Tony Joy about the concept and practice of Community Emergency Medicine. You'll hear from Gareth Davies on the history of Pre Hospital Emergency Medicine, both challenges and achievements. Finally you'll hear from Bill Leaning, PRU clinical manager & HEMS paramedic about how to go about setting up a service.

Please let us know any thoughts or feedback, and we'll be back with another podcast on a clinical topic for you in a few days time.

Enjoy!

Simon & James

We've got some papers this month that focus on our sickest patients!

If you had a patient that you found in cardiac arrest and you believed they had a PE, would you thrombolyse them during the arrest, and how much more likely do you think they would be to survive? Our first paper looks at exactly this question.

Second up we consider the potential harms associated with adrenaline administration to those in traumatic arrest.

Finally, when RSI'ing a patient and considering your pharmacological cocktail, how likely are you to reach for the fentanyl and how much concern would you have over the risk of this rendering the patient haemodynamically unstable? We take a look at a recent review on the topic and get Dr. Ian Ferguson's insights as the lead author.

Make sure to get in touch with any comments on any of the reviews, and importantly make sure you check out the papers and draw your own conclusions.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

So an incredibly important paper, CRASH-3 has just been published in the Lancet, which looks at the treatment of head injuries with Tranexamic Acid (TXA).

TXA has been shown to save lives in trauma patients at the risk of major haemorrhage, with the notable exclusion of those with head injuries, CRASH-2. TXA has been shown to save lives in those with post parts haemorrhage, WOMAN trial. Time to treatment with TXA has been shown to be hugely influential in it's ability to decrease blood loss and save lives. So has TXA now been shown to save lives in head injuries?

In this episode we run through the paper and are lucky enough to have an interview with the lead author, Professor Ian Roberts.

Have a listen, read the paper and as always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, and take a look at the references below to draw your own conclusions.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

The CRASH-2 trial: a randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation of the effects of tranexamic acid on death, vascular occlusive events and transfusion requirement in bleeding trauma patients.Roberts I. Health Technol Assess. 2013

CRASH-2;The Bottom Line

Effectof earlytranexamic acidadministrationon mortality, hysterectomy, and othermorbiditiesin womenwith post-partum haemorrhage(WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlledtrial. WOMANTrialCollaborators.Lancet 2017

WOMAN Trial;The Bottom Line

Effect of treatment delay on the effectiveness and safety of antifibrinolytics in acute severe haemorrhage: a meta-analysis of individual patient-level data from 40 138 bleeding patients.Gayet-Ageron A. Lancet. 2017

Tranexamic Acid - The Mechanism of Action;Video

Tranexamic Acid, Time to Treatment;The Resus Room

Does earlier TXA save lives?St Emlyns

TXA podcast; PHEMCAST

About CRASH-3; LSHTM

Welcome to October '19 papers podcast.

You can't go far without the topic of TXA as a treatment for anything that bleeds being mentioned! With the publication of CRASH-2 and the WOMAN trial practice has crept such that administration in gastro-intestinal bleeding is seen fairly frequently. However, current guidelines don't recommend the use of TXA in GI bleeding, so this month we have a look at a systematic review which looks to answer whether it's administration is supported by the evidence, before we get a definitive answer from the HALT-IT trial.

Next up, following on from our Burns Roadside to Resus podcast, we take a look at a paper that quantifies the potential benefit of thorough first aid in the management of paediatric burns, a really key paper on the topic, with really powerful results.

Finally, we all know that Sepsis is a core area of our practice, but at times it may feel like the attention on those that could possibly have severe sepsis displaces the ability to care for other critically ill patients. We take a look at a great paper developing a prehospital screening tool to focus in on those patients that really do require time-critical care.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

So as promised, and following on from our previous shock episode, this time we've covered the topic of shock in Trauma. It's a massive topic and one that we all, yet again, can make a huge difference for our patients' outcomes. 

There is some crossover as you'd expect from the concepts and assessment that we covered in our Shock episode, so we'd recommend taking a listen to that one first. Make sure you have a comfy seat and plenty of refreshments to keep you going for this one as we cover the following;

• Definition
• Aetiology
• Hypovolaemic shock
• Neurogenic shock
• Obstructive shock
• Cardiogenic shock
• Physiology; Traumatic coagulopathy
• Other diagnostics
• Controlling external haemorrhage
• Pelvic binders
• REBOA
• Avoiding coagulopathy
• BP targets & permissive hypotension
• Fluid choices & supporting evidence
• TEG/ROTEM
• Calcium
• TXA
• Vasopressors
• Preventing hypothermia
• Relieving obstruction
• Interventional radiology
• Damage control surgery

As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, and make sure you take a look at the references and guidelines linked below to draw your own conclusions.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

Shock;The Resus Room podcast

REBOA;The Resus Room podcast

External Haemorrhage;The Resus Room podcast

Blood;PHEMCAST

TEG & ROTEM;FOAMcast

Major Trauma guideline;NICE

Resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA):a population based gap analysis of trauma patients in England and Wales

Nationwide Analysis of Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta in Civilian Trauma. Joseph B. JAMA Surg. 2019

The Pre-hospital Management of Pelvic Fractures: Initial Consensus Statement. I Scott. FPHC. 2012

RePHILL;Birmingham University Trials

Assessment and Treatment of Spinal Cord Injuries and Neurogenic Shock;Fox A. JEMS

Transfusion of plasma, platelets, and red blood cells in a 1:1:1 vs a 1:1:2 ratio and mortality in patients with severe trauma: the PROPPR randomized clinical trial. Holcomb JB. JAMA. 2015

Risks and benefitsof hypotensive resuscitation in patients with traumatic hemorrhagic shock: a meta-analysis. Owattanapanich N. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2018

The CRASH-2 trial: a randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation of the effects of tranexamic acid on death, vascular occlusive events and transfusion requirement in bleeding trauma patients.Roberts I. Health Technol Assess. 2013

TEG and ROTEM for diagnosing trauma‑induced coagulopathy (disorder of the clotting system) in adult trauma patients with bleeding;Cochrane Review. 2015 

Optimal Dose, Timing and Ratio of Blood Products in Massive Transfusion: Results from a Systematic Review.McQuilten ZK. Transfus Med Rev. 2018

Prehospital Plasma during Air Medical Transport in Trauma Patients at Risk for Hemorrhagic Shock.Sperry JL. N Engl J Med. 2018

We start off this month with a much talked about paper in the pre-hospital services, what benefit does Pre Hospital Critical Care bring to cardiac arrest victims? We are lucky enough to have the inside thoughts of the lead author, this a really interesting piece of work and will no doubt lead to further discussions, for more information from the author take a look at his thesis here.

Next up we take a look at the utility of troponins in patients that have suffered cardiac arrest, can we use them to evaluate how likely it was that an MI precipitated the arrest?

Last up we have a look at a novel approach of ruling out stroke as the cause of acute dizziness.

We'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Following on from our previous Roadside to Resus episode on Stroke, in this episode we look at the rapidly evolving area of stroke management. 

In the last 2 decades stroke management has progressed beyond recognition and keeping up with the evidence and available therapies is a significant challenge. We cover the following treatments, looking at the risks and benefits of each, with the goal of being able to offer our patients the best possible outcomes;

• Aspirin
• Thrombolysis; both prehospitally and in hospital
• Thrombectomy
• Decompressive Hemicraniectomy
• Normoxia
• Euglycaemia
• Acute blood pressure management

As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

Tissue plasminogen activator for acute ischemic stroke. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke rt-PA.Stroke Study Group. N Engl J Med. 1995 

Aspirin in Stroke;NNT

Stroke Thrombolysis; Life in The Fast Lane

Effects of Prehospital Thrombolysis in Stroke Patients With Prestroke Dependency. Nolte CH. Stroke. 2018

Effect of the use of ambulance based thrombolysis on time to thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke: a randomized clinical trial. Ebinger M. JAMA. 2014

Indications for thrombectomy in acute ischemic stroke from emergent large vessel occlusion (ELVO): report of the SNIS Standards and Guidelines Committee. Mokin M. J Neurointerv Surg. 2019

Revolution in acute ischaemic stroke care: a practical guide to mechanical thrombectomy. Evans MRB. Pract Neurol. 2017

Extend; The Bottom Line

Stroke and transient ischaemic attack in over 16s: diagnosis and initial management. NICE guideline.Published: 1 May 2019

MR CLEAN, a multicenter randomized clinical trial of endovascular treatment for acute ischemic stroke in the Netherlands: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.Fransen PS. Trials. 2014

A multicenter, randomized, controlled study to investigate EXtending the time for Thrombolysis in Emergency Neurological Deficits with Intra-Arterial therapy (EXTEND-IA).Campbell BC. Int J Stroke. 2014

Stent-Retriever Thrombectomy after Intravenous t-PA vs. t-PA Alone in Stroke. Jeffrey L. Saver. NEJM. 2015 

Thrombectomy for Stroke at 6 to 16 Hours with Selection by Perfusion Imaging.Gregory W. Albers. NEJM. 2018

Thrombectomy 6 to 24 Hours after Stroke with a Mismatch between Deficit and Infarct.Raul G. Nogueira.NEJM. 2018

Well the summer has definitely hit and we hope you get a chance for a break... making sure you spend spend some time listening to our Heat Illness episode on a beach somewhere!

It's a wide variety of papers for you this month;

Should we be looking to immediately cardiovert acute onset AF in the ED? What difference does glucagon make to clearing oesophageal foreign bodies? How important is our diagnostic accuracy in ED to the patients morbidity and mortality? And finally we cover a paper looking at the requirement for urgent tracheal intubation in trauma patients, and are lucky enough to get some thoughts from the lead author Dr. Kate Crewdson.

We'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Stroke is a common presentation to all Emergency Health care providers, with around 150,000 strokes occurring in the UK each year! Our impact and treatment can be hugely significant and in this podcast we’re going to conver the topic in some depth, and importantly cover some of the new Guidance published by NICE in their ‘Stroke and transient ischaemic attack in the over 16’s diagnosis and initial management’ document that was published in May of this year.

We'll be running through

• Definition
• Pathophysiology
• Territories
• Risk factors
• Assessment; both prehospitally and in hospital
• Stroke mimics
• Investigations

As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

Stroke & Dizziness; PHEMCAST

RCEMLearning; RCEM Belfast Vertigo

Stroke and transient ischaemic attack in over 16s: diagnosis and initial management. NICE guideline.Published: 1 May 2019

Acute Stroke Lecture notes; LITFL

Stroke Thrombolysis; LITFL

Are you at risk of a Stroke; Stroke Association

Modifiable Risk Factors for Stroke and Strategies for Stroke Prevention.Hill VA. Semin Neurol. 2017

A systematic review of stroke recognition instruments in hospital and prehospital settings. Rudd M. Emerg Med J. 2016

Acute Stroke Diagnosis.Kenneth S. Yew. Am Fam Physician. 2009

Imaging of acute stroke prior to treatment: current practice and evolving techniques.G Mair. Br J Radiol. 2014

Should CT Angiography be a Routine Component of Acute Stroke Imaging?Vanja Douglas. Neuro hospitalist. 2015

Comparative Sensitivity of Computed Tomography vs. Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Detecting Acute Posterior Fossa Infarct. David Y Hwang. J Emerg Med. 2013

Posterior circulation ischaemic stroke. A Merwick BMJ 2014

Prehospital stroke scales as screening tools for early identification of stroke and transient ischemic attack (Review)Zhelev Z, Walker G, Henschke N, Fridhandler J, Yip S. 2019. Cochrane.

Welcome back!

This month we're finishing off our theme of syncope with a paper that looks to answer the big question; in those with undifferentiated syncope, does hospitalisation result in better outcomes when compared to discharge?

We have a look at a paper reviewing the feasibility of live streaming video from scene using the 999 caller's mobile phone, a fantastic utilisation of technology and a really exciting area; we also get the thoughts of one of the co-authors, Richard Lyon, Associate Medical Director for KSS.

Finally we take a look at a paper reviewing the time on scene in cardiac arrests, that suggests if no ROSC is gained, rapidly getting off scene is in our patients' interest.

We'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

If you live in the UK you may be fooled in to thinking that Heat Illness isn't really something we need to worry about...but you'd be wrong! Each year there are 800 deaths due to Heat Illness and figures in more temperate climates are significantly more.

In this podcast we tackle the topic of Heat Illness, all the way through Heat Cramps, Heat Syncope, Heat Exhaustion and to Heat Stroke.

We'll cover the following;

• Definition, clinical spectrum and categories
• Scale of the problem
• Thermoregulatory physiology
• Impact of hyperthermia
• Clinical findings
• Those at greatest risk
• Acclimatisation
• Differentials
• Management

As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, we look forward to hearing from you, and most importantly, we hope we haven't missed the summer heat wave...!

Enjoy

Simon, Rob & James 

Status Epilepticus in children, lying and standing blood pressures in syncope or presyncope and decompressing paediatric tension pneumothoraces.

You'll no doubt have seen and heard about the two papers published this month in the Lancet, both Consept and Eclipse look at the use of keppra vs phenytoin as a second line anti convulsant therapy for children in status epilepticus. We take a look at both papers, and have a think about what this means for practice.

There has been a large amount of focus on the optimal position for needle decompression of tension pneumothoraces in adults, but an open access paper from SJTREM looks at the best position in children, take a look at the paper here.

Finally, should all patients with a presentation of syncope/presyncope be getting a lying and standing blood pressure, or is it an ineffective test?

Make sure you take a look at the papers yourself, remembering that the paper from SJTREM on paediatric pneumothoraces is totally open access.

We'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Drowning is a huge worldwide problem, and here in the UK there are around 350 accidental deaths from drowning each year.

From the patient who is potentially well enough for discharge on scene, all the way through to the resuscitation and prognostication of a cardiac arrest due to drowning, the topic carries a number of unique questions and challenges.

In this podcast we run through;

• The scale of the problem
• Modes of drowning
• Prognostic factors
• Extrication
• Advanced Life Support in Drowning
• Termination of resuscitation
• Medical management

As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, we look forward to hearing from you.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

So first up a huge welcome to SJTREM, the free open access journal who we've teamed up with in the delivery of the podcast, every paper they publish is available online to read for free.

Each month we'll be covering one of their papers in our Papers of the Month episodes, giving you the opportunity to review the literature yourself, come to your own conclusions and join the conversation. SJTREM have made our podcast a sustainable venture and together we look forward to promoting review and discussion of the best evidence and education, to all, for free!

This month we'll be looking at an analysis of REBOA and having a think about whether it is benefiting those patients that are receiving it. We take a look at paper that reviews what we really know about the use of ETCO2 in cardiac arrest and have a think about how much importance we should put on it. Finally we take a look at the utility of prehospital blood gases; should this be the standard of care, or is it a step too far?Make sure you take a look at the papers yourself, remembering that the paper from SJTREM on prehospital blood gases is totally open access.

We'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

'Patients with GCS scores of 8 or less require prompt intubation', that's what ATLS tells us.

The mantra of GCS 8, intubate has pervaded teaching for those involved in the management of patients with a reduced GCS (Glasgow Coma Scale). But on reflection it would seem slightly odd that the gain or loss of a single point on the Glasgow Coma Scale could simply account for a change in the decision as to whether a patient would benefit from intubation and ventilation. So should the patient with a GCS of 9 be best managed without a definitive airway, but when that slips to 8 we should reach for the portex®?

In this podcast we take a deeper look at the GCS, we have a think about the role that it was designed to perform and consider how it should best be applied to acutely ill patients when considering protecting their airway.

The podcast is based upon the blog from the TEAM Course blog(Training in Emergency Airway Management), make sure to go and have a look at the post and other resources available on that site.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

GCS 8 intubate; TEAMcourse

Advanced trauma life support (ATLS®): the ninth edition. J Trauma Acute Care Surg.2013;74(5):1363-6.Teasdale G, Jennett B. Assessment of coma and impaired consciousness. A practical scale. Lancet. 1974;2(7872):81-4.

Teasdale G, Maas A, Lecky F, Manley G, Stocchetti N, Murray G.The Glasgow Coma Scale at 40 years: standing the test of time.Lancet Neurol. 2014;13(8):844-54.

Duncan R, Thakore S. Decreased Glasgow Coma Scale score does not mandate endotracheal intubation in the emergency department. J Emerg Med. 2009;37(4):451-5.

Green SM. Cheerio, laddie! Bidding farewell to the Glasgow Coma Scale.Ann Emerg Med. 2011;58(5):427-30.

Healey C, Osler TM, Rogers FB, et al. Improving the Glasgow Coma Scale score: motor score alone is a better predictor.J Trauma. 2003;54(4):671-8.

Isbister GK, Downes F, Sibbritt D, Dawson AH, Whyte IM. Aspiration pneumonitis in an overdose population: frequency, predictors, and outcomes.Crit Care Med. 2004;32(1):88-93.

Adnet F, Baud F. Relation between Glasgow Coma Scale and aspiration pneumonia.Lancet. 1996;348(9020):123-4.

Kulig K, Rumack BH, Rosen P. Gag reflex in assessing level of consciousness.Lancet. 1982;1(8271):565.

Rotheray KR, Cheung PS, Cheung CS, et al. What is the relationship between the Glasgow coma scale and airway protective reflexes in the Chinese population?.Resuscitation. 2012;83(1):86-9.

Moulton C, Pennycook A, Makower R. Relation between Glasgow coma scale and the gag reflex.BMJ. 1991;303(6812):1240-1.

So we've got a massively important paper that we're going to kick off April's Papers of the Month podcast with, which is the RCT we've been waiting for; whether patients who have a ROSC should go to the cath lab, without a stemi, if the presumed cause is a coronary event? We've covered this topic in the past, for a background take a listen to PCI following ROSC and our December '17 papers of the month podcast.

Next up, on the topic of over-testing, we have a look if we should be sending troponins and BNP's on our patients attending with syncope.

Lastly, having spoken recently about the importance of ED airway registry's, we take a look at an open access paper from SJTREM that describes the practice, success and complication rates of ED advanced airway management.

As always make sure you take a look at the papers yourselves and draw you own conclusions, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Coronary Angiography after Cardiac Arrest without ST-Segment Elevation. Lemkes JS. N Engl J Med.2019

Do High-sensitivity Troponin and Natriuretic Peptide Predict Death or Serious Cardiac Outcomes After Syncope? Clark CL. Acad Emerg Med.2019

Airway Management in the Emergency Department(The OcEAN-Study) - a prospective single centre observational cohort study. Bernhard M. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med.2019

PCI following ROSC podcast

December 2017; Papers of the Month Podcast

We were lucky enough to be back at the fantastic TraumaCare Conference last week.

There were a whole host of fantastic talks on offer and the Emergency Medicine stream, arranged by our very own Rob Fenwick, included a pro/con debate on whether Emergency Medicine should be managing the trauma airway. During that debate a number of important papers were raised on the evolution and improvement in advanced airway management. In this podcast we'll run through some of the most important points from that talk.

Make sure you take a look at the papers yourself and come to your own conclusions.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

We've got a broad array of topics and papers for you this month!

First up we look at a paper from the NEJM assessing the potential benefits in providing ventilations to patients undergoing an RSI. Next we look at patients presenting with both syncope and pre-syncope to the emergency department, this paper quantifies the risk that we should be apportioning to these two different presentations. Finally, we look at a paper that suggests the manual pulse check in CPR is dead, and that the time has come for doppler and ultrasound to replace it!

As always make sure you take a look at the papers yourselves and draw you own conclusions, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Bag-Mask Ventilation during Tracheal Intubation of Critically Ill Adults. Casey JD. N Engl J Med.2019

 Comparison of 30-Day Serious Adverse Clinical Events for Elderly Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department With Near-Syncope Versus Syncope. Bastani A. Ann Emerg Med.2019

Comparison of manual pulse palpation, cardiac ultrasonography and Doppler ultrasonography to check the pulse in cardiopulmonary arrest patients. Zengin S. Resuscitation.2018

Hypothermia is a common problem for both pre and in-hospital clinicians. Understanding the underpinning physiology helps us deliver first class care to our patients, decreasing associated morbidity and mortality.

There is some extremely difficult decision making to be done in severe cases of hypothermia and the podcast gives us an opportunity to explore them further.

We'll cover the subject in depth with particular reference to the following categories of hypothermia; treatment, modifications in cardiac arrest and prognostication.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

ERC 2015; Cariac arrest in specialist circumstances

LITFL; hypothermia

RCEMLearning; hypothermia

Up to Date; Hypothermia

At the bedside, out of the cold: management of hypothermia and frostbite.BiemJ.CMAJ. 2003

The prehospital management of hypothermia - An up-to-date overview. Haverkamp FJC. Injury. 2018 

Accidentalhypothermia-an update: The content of this review is endorsed by the International Commission for Mountain Emergency Medicine (ICAR MEDCOM). Paal P. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2016

Accidental hypothermia. Brown DJ. 2012 N Engl J Med.

Ketamine and trauma are the topics for this months papers.

The three papers we cover are really important for all of us involved in the care of critically unwell patients. Hypotensive resuscitation in the context of trauma has been an evolving area of practice in the treatment of our acute trauma victims. A paper published in SJTREM this month meta-analyses the data that exists out there on the topic and looks to give us an idea of the benefits and potential risks associated with such an approach, the paper is available here and is well worth a full read.

Morphine has been a mainstay of the treatment of acute severe pain in the Emergency Department for decades, but as the popularity of ketamine grows we take a look at another meta-analysis, this time comparing the efficacy of ketamine versus morphine in this setting and group of patients.

And lastly, if you have ever had a patient become severely agitated with ketamine sedation, you'll be keen to avoid that happening again! The last paper we look at is a randomised control trial looking at the potential benefits of using either midazolam or haloperidol to achieve that.

We hope you find the podcast useful, as ever please go and take a look at the papers yourself and we'd love to hear any thought or comments you have either rat the bottom of the page, or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References

Risks and benefits of hypotensive resuscitation in patientswith traumatic hemorrhagic shock: a meta-analysis. Owattanapanich N. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med.2018 

A Systematic Review and Meta-analysisof Ketamine as an Alternativeto Opioids for Acute Pain in the Emergency Department. Karlow N. Acad Emerg Med.2018

Premedication With Midazolamor Haloperidolt o Prevent Recovery Agitation in Adults Undergoing Procedural Sedation With Ketamine: A Randomized Double Blind Clinical Trial. Akhlaghi N. Ann Emerg Med.2019 

St Emlyns; JC: Should we premedicate for ketamine sedation?

If you're involved in the care of critically unwell patients then you will frequently encounter patients who are shocked. The European Society of Intensive Care Medicine defines shock as;

'Life-threatening, generalized form of acute circulatory failure associated with inadequate oxygen utilization by the cells. It is a state in which the circulation is unable to deliver sufficient oxygen to meet the demands of the tissues, resulting in cellular dysfunction.’

The assessment for shock needs to be part of the routine workup of every potentially unwell patient. Shock carries with it a high mortality rate, a range of meaningful interventions and the potential to make a real difference to our patients' outcomes. 

In this podcast we cover

• Defining shock in adults
• Significance of shock
• What shock looks like
• A recap of cardiac physiology
• Causes of shock
• Ultrasound evaluation
• Fluid therapy
• Inotropes and vasopressors

As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, we look forward to hearing from you.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

Consensuson circulatory shockand hemodynamic monitoring. Task forceof the EuropeanSociety of Intensive Care Medicine. Cecconi M. Intensive Care Med.2014

NICE Intravenous fluid therapy in adults in hospital. Clinical guideline. December 2013

ALIEM; Choosing the right vasopressor agent in hypotension

Resus; The Shock Index

ALIEM; Shock Index: A Predictor of Morbidity and Mortality?

A comparisonof the shockindexand conventionalvital signsto identifyacute, critical illnessin the emergency department. Rady MY. Ann Emerg Med.1994 

TheResusRoom; Sepsis

RCEM guidance; Noradrenaline Infusion

Association between timing of antibiotic administration and mortality from septic shock in patients treated with a quantitative resuscitation protocol. Puskarich MA. Crit Care Med. 2011

Early goal-directed therapy in the treatment of severe sepsis and septic shock.Rivers E. N Engl J Med. 2001

Early lactate clearance is associated with improved outcome in severe sepsis and septic shock.Nguyen HB. Crit Care Med. 2004 

Lactate clearance vs central venous oxygen saturation as goals of early sepsis therapy: a randomized clinical trial.Jones AE. JAMA. 2010

A randomized trial of protocol-based care for early septic shock.ProCESS Investigators. N Engl J Med. 2014

Early goal-directed therapyin the treatmentof severe sepsisand septic shock. Rivers E. N Engl J Med.2001

The significance of non-sustained hypotension in emergency department patients with sepsis.Marchick MR. Intensive Care Med. 2009

Risks and benefits of hypotensive resuscitation in patients with traumatic hemorrhagic shock: a meta-analysis.Natthida Owattanapanich. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2018.

TheResusRoom; The Crystalloid Debate

Happy New Year!! Hopefully you got a bit of downtime over the festive period and are feeling suitably refreshed and ready to attack 2019!

We've got 3 great papers to kick off the year. First up we look at the recent PReVENT trial which looks at ventilator strategies in patients without ARDS with respect to tidal volumes. This paper continues the work from the much cited ARDSNet paper from 2000, and we'd highly recommend you go and have a look at that paper first.

Next we look at another paper from JAMA which compares Thrombolysis to Aspirin in minor non-disabling strokes. We say enough about this one in the podcast, but for a bit of background to our thoughts and the evidence surrounding stroke, check out our previous Stroke Thrombolysis podcast.

Lastly we have a look at a paper investigating their systems use of push-dose-pressors, which whilst not the most methodologically sound piece of research, certainly brings out some interesting thoughts and points.

As always make sure you take a look at the papers yourselves and we'd love to hear and comments or feedback you've got.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Effectof a LowvsIntermediateTidalVolumeStrategyon Ventilator-FreeDaysin IntensiveCareUnitPatientsWithout ARDS: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA.2018 Writing Group for the PReVENT Investigators

Ventilationwith lowertidal volumesas comparedwith traditionaltidal volumesfor acute lung injury and the acute respiratory distress syndrome. Acute Respiratory Distress SyndromeNetwork. N Engl J Med.2000

PReVENT; The Bottom Line

EMCrit; Vent and Prevent, an update

Effectof AlteplasevsAspirinon FunctionalOutcomefor PatientsWith AcuteIschemicStrokeand MinorNondisabling Neurologic Deficits: The PRISMS Randomized Clinical Trial. Khatri P. JAMA.2018

TheResusRoom; Stroke Thrombolysis podcast

Push dose pressors: Experience in critically ill patients outside of the operating room. Rotando A. Am J Emerg Med.2018

Festive greetings to all!

We hope you've had a fantastic 2018 and have some time off over Xmas and New Year to celebrate with friends and family. We thought we'd bring you some of the most influential papers that we've read over the last 12 months, that haven't necessarily fitted in that closely with some of the topics we've covered...we hope you enjoy!

Thanks for all of your support with the podcast throughout 2018 and we wish you a very happy 2019.

Simon, Rob & James

References

Pediatric golf cart trauma: Not par for the course. Tracy BM. J Pediatr Surg. 2018

What to eat and drink in the festive season: a pan-European, observational, cross-sectional study. Parker HL, et al. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2017.

Work of Breathing into Snow in the Presence versus Absence of an Artificial Air Pocket Affects Hypoxia and Hypercapnia of a Victim Covered with Avalanche Snow: A Randomized Double Blind Crossover Study. Karel Roubík. PLoS One. 2015.

Cardiac arrest management is core business of a resuscitationist and practice is constantly evolving in the pursuit of improving patient outcomes. 

We were lucky enough to be invited to the London Trauma Conference's Cardiac Arrest Masterclass stream, where Matt Thomas put on a superb array of talks around all things cardiac arrest. 

We managed to borrow a bit of time from some of the speakers and caught up with some of the topics covered including; airway management, ECGs pre/post arrest, POCUS, CRM and breaking bad news. We found the day hugely useful and we hope the podcast sums up some of the great points from the day.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

London Trauma Conference

AIRWAYS-2; podcast

SPIKES Protocol

LITFL; Killer ECG Patterns

Beyondprognostication: ambulancepersonnel's livedexperiencesof cardiacarrestdecision-making. Anderson NE. Emerg Med J.2018

Zero Talent Battle

Well the year maybe coming to a close but the high quality papers keep on coming out!

We've got 3 great articles to cover in this episode which have some key points to reflect on in our practice. First up we take a look at the application of Canadian c-spine rules by ED triage nurses and the potential impact this approach could hold.

Next up we have a look at the addition of magnesium to current ED rate control of uncompromised patients presenting with rapid AF.

Lastly we look at a paper on the conservative management of traumatic pneumothoraces, including those undergoing positive pressure ventilation, which reviews the complication rate of this approach.

As always make sure you take a look at the papers yourselves and form your own opinions, we would love to hear you comments and feedback.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Ian G. Stiell, Catherine M. Clement, Maureen Lowe, Connor Sheehan, Jacqueline Miller, Sherry Armstrong, Brenda Bailey, Kerry Posselwhite, Jannick Langlais, Karin Ruddy, Susan Thorne, Alison Armstrong, Catherine Dain, Jeffrey J. Perry, Christian Vaillancourt, 2018, 'A Multicenter Program to Implement the Canadian C-Spine Rule by Emergency Department Triage Nurses', Annals of Emergency Medicine, vol. 72, no. 4, pp. 333-341

Wahid Bouida, Kaouthar Beltaief, Mohamed Amine Msolli, Noussaiba Azaiez, Houda Ben Soltane, Adel Sekma, Imen Trabelsi, Hamdi Boubaker, Mohamed Habib Grissa, Mehdi Methemem, Riadh Boukef, Zohra Dridi, Asma Belguith, Semir Nouira, 2018, 'Low‐dose Magnesium Sulfate Versus High Dose in the Early Management of Rapid Atrial Fibrillation: Randomized Controlled Double‐blind Study (LOMAGHI Study)', Academic Emergency Medicine

Steven P. Walker, Shaney L. Barratt, Julian Thompson, Nick A. Maskell, 2018, 'Conservative Management in Traumatic Pneumothoraces', Chest, vol. 153, no. 4, pp. 946-953

SGEM#232: I Can See Clearly Now the Collar is Gone – Thanks to the Triage Nurse

London Trauma Conference; Cardiac Arrest Masterclass

We were delighted to be back to cover the joint Faculty of Prehospital Care and BASICS conference, day 2,  held at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Again we were absolutely spoilt for choice when it came to content for the podcasts but we managed to catch up with:

• Dr Anne Weaver – a consultant in Emergency Medicine and Prehospital Care working for the Royal London Hospital and London HEMS. She talked to us about chemical burns and a novel treatment for managing these injuries. • Dr Virginia Beckett – an Obstetrics and Gynaecology consultant who is a member of the mMOET working group and has recently published on the topic of cardiac arrest in pregnancy. She was talking on the topic of resuscitative hysterotomy. • Sam Cooper – a Critical Care Paramedic from Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance who discussed a case of prehospital amputation and the learning points that arose from it. • Dr Rob Lloyd – an Emergency Medicine trainee, blogger and fellow podcaster who has an interest in performance psychology. He talked about Mental Toughness, framed by his experiences working in a hospital deep in a South African township.

Once again, our thanks to Caroline Leech for being instrumental in the organisation of today and inviting us up. We’re already looking forward to next year….

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

PonderMed

Diphoterine

A video showing a similar demonstration to the one at the conference showing why Diphoterine works and the limitations of water

Pre-hospital Obstetric Emergency Training; POET

VA Beckett, M Knight, P Sharpe, 2017, 'The CAPS Study: incidence, management and outcomes of cardiac arrest in pregnancy in the UK: a prospective, descriptive study', BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, vol. 124, no. 9, pp. 1374-1381

Realtime simulation of peri-mortem c-section; Bradford Teaching Hospital K. M. Porter, 2010, 'Prehospital amputation', Emergency Medicine Journal, vol. 27, no. 12, pp. 940-942

Caroline Leech, Keith Porter, 2016, 'Man or machine? An experimental study of prehospital emergency amputation', Emergency Medicine Journal, vol. 33, no. 9, pp. 641-644

We were delighted to be invited to cover the joint Faculty of Prehospital Care and BASICS conference held at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

This two-day prehospital extravaganza covered a broad range of topics and the content was delivered by some excellent speakers. As such, we were absolutely spoilt for choice when it came to content for the podcasts but we managed to catch up with:

• Dr Abi Hoyle – a paediatric emergency medicine consultant with a background in military and retrieval services. She gave us some key tips when dealing with paediatric patients.
• Ian Dunbar – a technical and medical rescue consultant with years of experience in the UK Fire and Rescue Service and ongoing involvement with British Touring Car Championship and the FIA. He did some myth busting around extrication from vehicles.
• Professor Mike Tipton – a leading figure in extreme physiology who is the Associate Head of Research at the Extreme Environments Laboratory in Portsmouth, is trustee/director of Surf Life Saving GB, sits on the medical committee for the RNLI and was awarded an MBE for services to physiological research in extreme environments. Mike spoke on the topic of drowning.

Massive thanks to Dr Caroline Leech who put together this brilliant programme and extended the invitation to us. We hope you enjoy the podcast and extract some learning to inform your practice.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

Resus Council UK; Prehospital Resuscitation

Michael J. Shattock, Michael J. Tipton, 2012, '‘Autonomic conflict’: a different way to die during cold water immersion?',The Journal of Physiology, vol. 590, no. 14, pp. 3219-3230 

Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care and Basics Conference

We've heard a lot about advanced airway management recently, with some really significant publications over the last few months and in the last few weeks in JAMA we've had another!

Cricoid pressure during emergency anaesthesia and for those at high risk of aspiration has been common place for more than half a century. But it's a topic that has caused quite some debate. On one hand it has the potential to reduce aspiration, a very real and potentially very serious complication of RSI. But on the other it has the potential to hinder the view on laryngoscopy and decrease first pass success.

The founding evidence for cricoid pressure has always been a little soft. In this podcast we look at the background of cricoid pressure and then run through this key paper, discussing the implications it holds for both pre and in-hospital advanced airway management.

As always we'd love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, we look forward to hearing from you.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References

Effect of Cricoid Pressure Compared With a Sham Procedure in the Rapid Sequence Induction of Anaesthesia: The IRIS Randomized Clinical Trial. Birenbaum A. JAMA Surg 2018

Cricoid pressure to control regurgitation of stomach contents during induction of anaesthesia. Sellick BA Lancet.1961

Safer Prehospital Anaesthesia 2017;AAGBI

JC: Cricoid Pressure and RSI, do we still need it?St Emlyn’s

Cricoid: To press, or not to press?(Hinds and May)

Welcome back to November's Papers Podcast! We've got 3 great papers for you again this month.

First up we take a look at a paper that looks to quantify the amount of experience needed to be a proficient intubator, in this case in arrest. Next we have a look at a paper which shows a significant difference in mortality in cardiac arrest dependant on the intravascular access route used. Finally we have a look a really interesting paper in the dispatch method of a HEMS service which we be of real interest to all those involved in paramedicine and prehospital critical care.

Make sure you take a look at the papers themselves and form your own opinions. We'd love to hear any thoughts and feedback you have.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

How much experience do rescuers require to achieve successful tracheal intubation during cardiopulmonary resuscitation? Kim SY. Resuscitation.2018

A novel method of non-clinical dispatch is associated with a higher rate of criticalHelicopter Emergency Medical Service intervention. Munro S .Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med.2018

Intraosseous Vascular Access Is Associated With Lower Survival and Neurologic Recovery Among Patients With Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. Kawano T. Ann Emerg Med.2018

With bonfire night approaching we thought it would be a good time to have a think about burns.

However burns are a significant issue at all times of year with around 130,000 presentations to UK EDs annually, 10,000 cases are admitted to hospital, 500 of these have severe burns and 200 of these will die. But most importantly intervention that we make can make a big difference to both morbidity and mortality, really affecting outcomes. 

Throughout this episode we'll be covering the essential first responder management, all the way through to the critical care that maybe required for the sickest of burns patients. 

In the podcast we cover

• Burn type and burn severity

• The importance of history

• Assessing burn extent

• Assessing burn depth

• The A-E assessment and specifics regarding the burns patient

• NAI, antibiotics, tetanus cover, analgesia, special circumstances eyes & chemicals

• Conveyance and destination

As always we'd love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, we look forward to hearing from you.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James 

References

British Burn Association First Aid Clinical Practice Guidelines

BBA Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of Burn Blisters

BBA Clinical Practice Guideline for Deroofing Burn Blisters

RCEMLearning; Major Trauma, Burns

National Burn Care Referral Guidance

WHO; fact sheet on burns

NHS Standard Contract for Specialised Burns Care (All Ages) Schedule 2- The Services A. Service Specification

LITFL; burns

Clinical review: The critical care management of the burn patient. Jane A Snell. Crit Care 2013

Fluid resuscitation in major burns. Mitra B ANZ J Surg. 2006

How well does the Parkland formula estimate actual fluid resuscitation volumes? Cartotto RC. J Burn Care Rehabil. 2002

Fluid resuscitation management in patients with burns: update. Guilabert P. Br J Anaesth. 2016

ISBI Practice Guidelines for Burn Care 2016

Welcome back to October's Papers Podcast, this month we move airway from advanced airway management and bring you a broad array of papers.

First up we have a look at the relative success of a variety of pharmacological strategies for managing the acutely agitated patient in ED. Next up we have look at the well know CURB-65 score and it's ability to predict the need for critical care interventions. Lastly, we may all feel at times that performing a CT head on those well patients solely because they take anticoagulants may be a little on the excessive side, we review a paper that looks at the yield of positive scans in this cohort.

As ever don't just take our word for it, go and have a look at the papers yourself, we would love to hear any comments or feedback you have.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading 

IntramuscularMidazolam, Olanzapine, Ziprasidone, or Haloperidolfor TreatingAcuteAgitationin the Emergency Department. Klein LR. Ann Emerg Med. 2018

Performanceof the CURB-65Scorein PredictingCritical CareInterventionsin PatientsAdmitted With Community-AcquiredPneumonia.Ilg A. Ann Emerg Med.2018

Incidenceof intracranial bleedingin anticoagulatedpatientswith minor head injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Minhas H. Br J Haematol.2018

So we're back with September's papers of the month a little later than usual but we wanted to give you a little time to digest AIRWAYS-2... before we give you some more prehospital research on advanced airway management in cardiac arrest!

The American version of AIRWAYS-2, PART, has just been released in JAMA, looking at the laryngeal tube versus endotracheal intubation as a primary strategy for advanced airway management. The paper is fascinating accompaniment to AIRWAYS-2.

Next we have a look at a paper assessing Emergency Medicine clinicians' ability to predict hospital admission at the time of triage, should we be making early calls on the destination of our patients?

Finally we have a look at the potential role of esmolol in cases of refractory VF and a paper that reports twice the survival rates in those that receive it!

As always we strongly suggest you have a look at the papers yourself and come to your own conclusions. Make sure you check out the hyperlinked blogs below that we mention in the podcast that contain some fantastic critiques. We'd also love to hear any comments either at the foot of this page or on twitter to @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Effect of a Strategy of Initial Laryngeal Tube Insertion vs Endotracheal Intubation on 72-Hour Survival in Adults With Out-of-Hospital Cardiac ArrestA Randomized Clinical Trial. Henry E. Wang, MD. 2018

Emergency medicinephysicians' abilityto predicthospital admissionat the timeof triage. Vlodaver ZK. Am J Emerg Med.2018

Use of esmolol after failure of standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation to treat patientswith refractory ventricular fibrillation. Driver BE. Resuscitation.2014

King Laryngeal Tube

So we're back from our summer hiatus with a real treat. The long awaited AIRWAYS-2 paper has just been released and we've been lucky enough to speak with the lead author, Professor Jonathan Benger, about the paper and discuss what the findings mean for cardiac arrest management.

AIRWAYS-2 looks at the initial advanced airway management strategy for paramedics attending out of hospital cardiac arrests, essentially whether or not the aim should be to place a supraglottic airway device or an endotracheal tube when advancing from simple airway techniques. The study was a huge undertaking with many speculating over how the results would change practice, including discussion of how it may affect paramedic's practice of intubation, all of which we cover in the podcast.

Before you listen to the podcast make sure you have a look at the paper yourself, have a listen to PHEMCAST's previous episode which covers the study design and have a look at the infographics on the website which summarise the primary outcome and secondary analysis and which we refer to in the interview with Professor Benger.

In the podcast we refer to Jabre's paper which can be found below and we also covered in May's papers podcast. Have a listen to the interview and let us know any thoughts or feedback you have, we're sure this one will create a lot of discussion!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

Effect of a Strategy of a Supraglottic Airway Device vs Tracheal Intubation During Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest on Functional Outcome. The AIRWAYS-2 Randomized Clinical Trial. Benger J. JAMA. 2018

PHEMCAST; the LMA

Effect of Bag-Mask Ventilation vs Endotracheal Intubation During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation on Neurological Outcome After Out-of-Hospital Cardiorespiratory Arrest: A Randomised Clinical Trial. Jabre P. JAMA. 2018

TEAM Course

Welcome to August's papers of the month.

So this is our last offering for the summer until whilst we take a short break until September, so we had to finish off we 3 great papers!

First up we look at the drug of the moment (or decade...) in tranexamic acid and the effect that it has on outcomes in primary intracerebral haemorrhage.

Next, what role does point of care ultrasound (POCUS) hold in the patient presenting with undifferentiated shock? We look at a randomised control trial of POCUS in this patient cohort that assesses the ability to translate POCUS into a mortality benefit.

Finally we look at a delphi study published in the EMJ which explores expert opinion upon multiple aspects of paediatric traumatic arrests. The results are fascinating and may inform some of the CRM used in the next case you see.

As always we strongly suggest you have a look at the papers yourself and come to your own conclusions. Make sure you check out the hyperlinked blogs below that we mention in the podcast that contain some fantastic critiques. We'd also love to hear any comments either at the foot of this page or on twitter to @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Tranexamic acid for hyperacute primary IntraCerebral Haemorrhage (TICH-2): an international randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 3 superiority trial. Sprigg N. Lancet. 2018

Does Point-of-Care Ultrasonography Improve Clinical Outcomes in Emergency Department Patients With UndifferentiatedHypotension? An International Randomized Controlled Trial From the SHoC-ED Investigators. Atkinson PR. Ann Emerg Med. 2018

Paediatric traumatic cardiac arrest: a Delphi study to establish consensus on definition and management. Rickard AC. Emerg Med J. 2018

St Emlyns JC; Tich Tich Boom?

First10EM; TXA in ICH (TICH-2) 

Drugs in cardiac arrest are controversial. Prehospital research is notoriously difficult to perform. PARAMEDIC2 has just published in the New England Journal of Medicine and is a multi centre randomised placebo controlled trial looking at adrenaline (or epinephrine depending on which side of the pond you reside) in out of hospital cardiac arrest, no mean undertaking and a landmark paper.

The paper has gained a huge amount of traction online with multiple blogs discussing the primary outcome which showed a higher survival rate in those receiving adrenaline when compared to placebo. This has been accompanied with a firm debate over the secondary outcomes, which include the rate of survival with a favourable neurological outcome (mRS 0-3), which showed no statistically significant difference between the two treatment arms, but in pure numbers gave a higher proportion of favourable outcomes in the adrenaline group.

The trade off for this increased survival is the significant number of survivors with a poor neurological outcome.

The question on everyone's lips then being; should we continue to administer adrenaline in cardiac arrest given the findings from this study?

In the podcast we run over the main findings of the paper and are lucky enough to speak to the lead author Professor Gavin Perkins about the paper and some of the questions we and you have had following publication of the paper. A huge thanks to Gavin for taking the time to do this.

Have a listen, enjoy, and let us know any thoughts or feedback you have

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

PARAMEDIC2; Warwick University Clinical Trials Unit

A Randomized Trial of Epinephrine in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. Perkins GD. N Engl J Med. 2018

PARAMEDIC2 Protocol

Testing Epinephrine for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. Callaway CW. N Engl J Med. 2018

First10EMParamedic 2: Epinephrine harms/helps in out of hospital cardiac arrest

REBEL Cast Ep56 PARAMEDIC-2: Time to Abandon Epinephrine in OHCA?

Head injury worldwide is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality.

Besides prevention there isn't anything that can be done to improve the results from the primary brain injury, there is however a phenomenal amount that can be done to reduce the secondary brain injury that patients suffer, both from a prehospital and in hospital point of view.

In the podcast we run through head injuries, all the way from initial classification and investigation, to specifics of treatment including neuro protective anaesthesia and hyperosmolar therapy, to give a sound overview of the management of these patients.

As always we welcome feedback via the website or on Twitter and we look forward to hearing from you.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

Risk of Delayed Intracranial Hemorrhage in Anticoagulated Patients with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Chauny JM. J Emerg Med. Jul 26 2016

Mannitol or hypertonic saline in the setting of traumatic brain injury: What have we learned? Boone MD. Surg Neurol Int. 2015

Life in the fast lane; hypertonic saline

Life in the fast lane; Traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury in England and Wales: prospective audit of epidemiology, complications and standardised mortality. T Lawrence. BMJ Open. 2016

Epidemiology of traumatic brain injuries in Europe: a cross-sectional analysis. M.Majdan. The Lancet. 2016

The inefficiency of plain radiography to evaluate the cervical spine after blunt trauma. Gale SC. J Trauma. 2005

What is the relationship between the Glasgow coma scale and airway protective reflexes in the Chinese population? Rotheray KR. Resuscitation. 2012

NICE Head Injury Guidelines 2014

MDCALC Canadian Head Injury

TheResusRoom; The AHEAD Study

TheResusRoom; Anticoagulation, head injury & delayed bleeds

Management of Perceived Devastating Brain Injury After Hospital Admission; A consensus statement 

A case for stopping the early withdrawal of life sustaining therapies in patients with devastating brain injuries. Manara AR. J Intensive Care Soc. 2016

Welcome to July's papers podcast. 

There has been a plethora of superb and thought provoking papers published this month and we've got the best 3 that caught our eye for you.

In this episode we look at the potential benefit of early vs late endoscopy in patients presenting with an acute upper GI bleed.  Next we look at both intra and post ROSC hyperoxia and the associated outcomes. Finally we have a look at the utility of straight leg raise as a test to rule out potential pelvicfractures in out trauma patients.

We strongly suggest you source the papers and come to your own conclusions and we'd love to hear any comments either at the foot of this page or on twitter to @TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Delayed endoscopy is associated with increased mortality in upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Jeong N. Am J Emerg Med. 2018 

Association between intra- and post-arrest hyperoxia on mortality in adults with cardiac arrest: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Patel JK. Resuscitation. 2018

Straight leg elevation to rule out pelvic injury. Bolt C. Injury. 2018

Managing external haemorrhage is easy right?! Then why does haemorrhage remain a major cause of death from trauma worldwide? Ok, some of that is from internal sources, but….

No one should die from compressible external haemorrhage

With the right treatment applied in a timely fashion, the vast majority of these bleeds can be stopped. But with new advances like haemostatic agents, changing advice surrounding tourniquet use and practice changing evidence coming out of conflict zones can mean it’s difficult to remain current with the latest best practice.

So what options are available to us, how do we use them and what’s the evidence. Here’s the line-up for this months’ podcast:

• Haemorrhage control ladder
• Evidence based guidelines on haemorrhage control
• Direct pressure
• Enhanced pressure dressings
• Haemostatic agents and wound packing
• Tourniquets
• Case studies

As always we welcome feedback via the website or on Twitter and we look forward to your engagement.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

Bennett, B. L & Littlejohn, L. (2014) Review of new topical hemostatic dressings for combat casualty care. Military Medicine. Volume 179, number 5, pp497-514.

Lee, C., Porter, K. M & Hodgetts, T. J. (2007) Tourniquet use in the civilian prehospital setting. Emergency Medicine Journal. Volume 24, pp584-7. 

Nutbeam, T & Boylan, M. (2013) ABC of prehospital emergency medicine. Wiley Blackwell. London.

Shokrollahi, K., Sharma, H & Gakhar, H. (2008) A technique for temporary control of haemorrhage. The Journal of Emergency Medicine. Volume 34, number 3, pp319-20.

Trauma! Extremity Arterial Hemorrhage; LITFL 

The European guideline on management of major bleeding and coagulopathy following trauma: fourth edition. Rolf Rossaint. Critical Care 2016.

NICE 2016. Major Trauma; Assessment and Initial Management

FPHC 2017; Position statement on the application of Tourniquets

Welcome back to our monthly round up of the best papers in the resuscitation world.

Again we've got 3 great papers covering some really important points of practice. First up we have a look at one of the most talked about diagnostic tests in Emergency Medicine, Troponin. We're are always looking to increase the sensitivity of the assay and test in order to ensure the patient hasn't got Acute Coronary Syndrome, but what are the implications of implementing a high sensitivity test? In our first paper we have a look at this exact scenario, the difference in patient outcomes and some of the resource implications to the service.

Next up we have a look at apnoeic oxygeationn. We've covered this a number of times before and most recently in our Roadside to Resus episode on RSI. This time we have a look at the most recent systematic review and meta-analysis on the topic to see if there is more definitive evidence of benefit with this technique.

Lastly we've found a paper that suggests a place for prognosticating off pH in cardiac arrest, is this something we should be adopting?

Have a listen but most importantly have a look at the papers yourself and let us know your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Low-level troponin elevations following a reduced troponin I cutoff: Increased resource utilization without improved outcomes. Becker BA. Am J Emerg Med. 2018 

Effectiveness of Apneic Oxygenation During Intubation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Oliveira J E Silva L. Ann Emerg Med. 2017 

Association between acidosis and outcome in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients. Lin CC. Am J Emerg Med. 2018.

The management of a cardiac arrest can be stressful at the best of times, but add into that the patient being a child and you have the potential for an overwhelmingly stressful situation.

Fortunately the major resuscitation bodies have some sound guidance on the management of paediatric arrests. In this episode we run through some of those guidelines and also the evidence base on the topic (scant at best!). We also touch on conveyance of the prehospital paediatric arrest, bringing familiy into the resuscitation area and knowing when to cease resuscitation.

We hope the podcast helps you prepare that little bit more for the next case you might see and that it may also ease the stress of such an emotive case.

Simon, Rob & James

Professor Simon Carley from St. Emlyns caught up with us at the superb Trauma Care Conference and talked through his top papers in trauma from the last 12 months.

There's something for everyone from diagnosing arterial injuries, blood pressure targets in the head injury patient, to i.v. contrast all the way through to imaging in kids.

If you haven't already, make sure you go and check out the St Emlyn's blog that underpins the talk that Simon gave. And if you're looking for a great value conference to suit all health care disciplines then make sure to keep an eye out for tickets when they go on sale for Trauma Care 2019.

A huge thanks to Simon C for his time recording the podcast and we'd love to hear any comments or feedback.

Enjoy!

Simon L & Simon C

References & Further Reading

For all the papers pop over to the St Emlyn's blog for the hyperlinks and abstracts

Dare we say it, we think this month's papers podcast is the best yet, we've got 3 superb papers and topics to consider!

The literature has been pretty airway heavy this month so we've got 3 papers on and around the topic for you.

First up we have a look at a really interesting paper from London HEMS looking at the risks v benefit of prehospital rapid sequence intubation in patients who are awake but hypotensive, is RSI a much needed move or something we should be looking to avoid prehospitally.

Airways-2 will soon be published looking at supraglottic airway management compared to intubation as first line airway management in out of hospital cardiac arrest, but JAMA has just published a paper comparing bag-mask ventilation vs endotracheal intubation in the same situation. It'll be interesting to see if this papers results fall inline with Airways-2.

Finally we take a look at a systematic review trying to give us the answer to direct or video laryngoscopy in emergency endotracheal intubation outside the OR.

Have a listen but most importantly have a look at the papers yourself and let us know your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Pre-hospital emergency anaesthesia in awake hypotensive trauma patients: beneficial or detrimental? Crewdson K. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2018 

Effect of Bag-Mask Ventilation vs Endotracheal Intubation During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation on Neurological Outcome AfterOut-of-Hospital Cardiorespiratory Arrest: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Jabre P. JAMA. 2018 

Videolaryngoscopy versus direct laryngoscopy for emergency orotracheal intubation outside the operating room: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Arulkumaran N. Br J Anaesth. 2018

Evidence based medicine (EBM) allows us to deliver the best care to our patients and understanding the concepts involved is crucial.

Over the last 18 month we've been building an online course to give people a sound understanding of EBM and we thought we'd give you a free taster of what it's all about.

Have a listen to one of our episodes here on statistics and if you want to find out more have a read below about the full course at www.CriticalAppraisalLowdown.co.uk

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

For this episode we’ve been lucky enough to catch a number of the speakers from the traumacare conference.

First up, conference organiser Caroline Leech (EM + PHEM consultant) gave us a few minutes of her time to talk about the latest major trauma key performance indicators from NICE.

Nicola Curry (Consultant Haematologist) spoke about transfusion in trauma and the use of massive haemorrhage protocols. Importantly, she covers the evidence behind the current strategies and where future research opportunities exist.

Stuart Reid (EM + PHEM consultant) covered the ways of optimising timely transfer of major trauma patients. This had an inter-hospital focus, but there were certainly some elements which can be applied to a primary patient transfer.

David Raven (EM consultant) provided an update to the ongoing work with the HECTOR project. We’ve previously heard about their amazing course but this time he was able to let us know about the “silver trauma safety net” which is being used by the ambulance service in the West Midlands. This aims to provide appropriate recognition and triage of trauma in the elderly population.

Finally, Elspeth Hulse (anaesthetic SpR) gave us a timely reminder about the identification and management of organophosphate poisoning - really useful from both and EM and PHEM perspective.

Thanks again to Caroline for the invite to the conference and keep and eye out for a special podcast in the next few weeks where Simon Carley will be running through his top 10 trauma papers of 2017/18 (we were going to try and condense it, but there was way too much good stuff!)

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

Trauma Care

St Emlyns

HECTOR

In this episode Rob takes us through a case he saw recently that brought about some invaluable learning.

We're not going to give you anymore clues than that!

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

(anonymised to keep the anticipation!)

Welcome back to April's papers of the month.

We've got 3 papers this month that look to challenge our work up strategies for the critically unwell. First up we look at a paper on the Ottawa subarachnoid haemorrhage rule, specifically considering if we can decrease scanning in patients with a suspected SAH and what application of the rule might mean for our practice.

Next up we look at a paper that might shine some real doubt on the use of IO access in our patients in cardiac arrest.

Lastly we look at a validation paper for the PERC rule for those patients with a suspected pulmonary embolus and this paper brings about some interesting points on external validity

Once again we'd really encourage you to have a look at the papers yourself and we've love to hear any thoughts or feedback you have.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

 References

Validation of the Ottawa Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Rule in patients with acute headache. Perry JJ. CMAJ. 2017  

Intraosseous Vascular Access Is Associated With Lower Survival and Neurologic Recovery Among Patients With Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. Kawano T. Ann Emerg Med. 2018 

Effect of the Pulmonary Embolism Rule-Out Criteria on Subsequent Thromboembolic Events Among Low-Risk Emergency Department Patients: The PROPER Randomized Clinical Trial. Freund Y. JAMA. 2018

 CORE EM; IO in Cardiac Arrest

Gaining control of the airway in a critically unwell patient is a key skill of the critical care team and littered with potential for difficulty and complications.

NAP4 highlighted the real dangers faced with their review of complications of airway management in the UK, lessons have been learnt and practice has progressed. As always there is room to improve on current practice and a recent paper published in Anaesthesia describes a comprehensive strategy to optimise oxygenation, airway management, and tracheal intubation in critically ill patients in all hospital locations.

In this podcast we cover;

• Why this matters to all involved in critically unwell patients, not just those delivering RSI
• Recap of RSI, the procedure and its indictions
• Headlines from NAP4
• Strategies highlighted to optimise airway management and oxygenation
• How this impacts our prehospital and inhospital practive

We'd love to hear your thoughts so please leave your comments below or contact us via twitter @TheResusRoom

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

NAP4

Guidelines for the management of tracheal intubation in critically ill adults. A Higgs B. British Journal of Anaesthesia. 2017

Early identification of patients at risk for difficult intubation in the intensive care unit: development and validation of the MACOCHA score in a multicenter cohort study.De Jong A. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2013

Introduction to the Vortex; vimeo

How often do you prescribe or give i.v. fluids to your patients? How much thought goes into what's contained in that fluid? What effect will you fluid choice have on your patient?

Two trials on crystalloid administration in the acutely unwell patient have occupied a lot of conversation in the research world over the last few weeks, both published in the NEJM and in this podcast we take a look at them.

In the podcast we cover the following;

• Whats the big deal with crystalloids
• Previous trials on fluid administration
• NEJM papers on crystalloids
• Myburgh's editorial

Make sure you take a look at the papers yourself and come up with your own conclusions. There are a whole host of superb FOAM resources out there on the topic that are well worth a look and referenced below.

We'd love to hear any thoughts and comments below.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Osmol

mOsm/L

Constituents measured in mEq/L Reference; University Texas 

Balanced Crystalloids versus Saline in Critically Ill Adults. Semler MW. N Engl J Med. 2018

Balanced Crystalloids versus Saline in Noncritically Ill Adults. Self WH. N Engl J Med. 2018

Patient-Centered Outcomes and Resuscitation Fluids. Myburgh J. N Engl J Med. 2018

REBEL.EM; Is the Great Debate Between Balanced vs Unbalanced Crystalloids Finally Over?

PulmCrit- Get SMART: Nine reasons to quit using normal saline for resuscitation

JC: Balanced fluids vs Saline on the ICU. The SMART trial. St Emlyn’s

JC: So long Salt and Saline? St Emlyn’s

The Bottom Line; SALT-EM

The Bottom Line; SMART

Welcome to March's papers of the month. We know we're biased but we've got 3 more superb papers for you this month!

First up we review a paper looking at oxygen levels in patient's with a return of spontaneous circulation following cardiac arrest, is hyperoxia bad news for this patient cohort as well as the other areas we've recently covered?

Secondly we have a look at a paper reviewing the association between time to i.v. furosemide and outcomes in patients presenting with acute heart failure, you may want to have a listen to our previous podcast on the topic first here.

Lastly, when you see a pregnant patient with a suspected thromboembolic event, can you use a negative d-dimer result to rule out the possibility? We review a recent paper looking at biomarker and specifically d-dimers ability to do this. 

We'd love to hear from you with any thoughts or feedback you have on the podcast. And we've now launched of Critical Appraisal Lowdown course, so if you want to gain some more skills in critical appraisal make sure you go and check out our online course here.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Association Between Early Hyperoxia Exposure AfterResuscitation from Cardiac Arrest and Neurological Disability: A Prospective Multi-Center Protocol-Directed Cohort Study. Roberts BW. Circulation. 2018

The DiPEP (Diagnosis of PE in Pregnancy) biomarker study: An observational cohort study augmented with additional cases to determine the diagnostic utility of biomarkers for suspectedvenous thromboembolism during pregnancy and puerperium. Hunt BJ. Br J Haematol. 2018

Time to Furosemide Treatment and Mortality in PatientsHospitalized With Acute Heart Failure. Matsue Y . J Am Coll Cardiol. 2017

MDCALC; Framingham Heart Failure Diagnostic Criteria

REBEL.EM; Door to Furosemide in AHF

Modified Rankin Scale

So the three of us are back together and going to take on Sepsis!

It's vital to have a sound understanding of sepsis. It has a huge morbidity and mortality but importantly there is so much that we can do both prehospital and in hospital to improve patient outcomes.

In the podcast we cover the following;

• Definitions
• Scale of problem
• Different bodies; NICE/Sepsis Trust/3rd international consensus definition including qSOFA
• Handover and pre alerts
• Treatment; Sepsis 6
• The evidence base behind treatment
• Contentious areas
  •  Prehospital abx
  • Fever control
  • Steroids
  • ETCO2

We hope the podcast helps refresh your knowledge on the topic and brings about some clarity on some contentious points. As always don't just take our word for it, go and have a look at the primary literature referenced below.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

Duration of hypotension before initiation of effective antimicrobial therapy is the critical determinant of survival in human septic shock. Kumar. Critical Care Medicine. 2006

Prognostic value of timing of antibiotic administration in patientswith septic shock treated with early quantitative resuscitation. Ryoo SM. Am J Med Sci. 2015 

The association between time to antibiotics and relevant clinicaloutcomes in emergency department patients with various stages of sepsis: a prospective multi-center study. de Groot B. Crit Care. 2015

Association between timing of antibiotic administration and mortality from septic shock in patients treated with a quantitative resuscitation protocol. Puskarich MA. Crit Care Med. 2011

Early goal-directed therapy in the treatment of severe sepsis and septic shock. Rivers E. N Engl J Med. 2001

Early lactate clearance is associated with improved outcome in severe sepsis and septic shock. Nguyen HB. Crit Care Med. 2004 

The prognostic value of blood lactate levels relative to that of vitalsigns in the pre-hospital setting: a pilot study. Jansen TC Crit Care. 2008

Lactate clearance vs central venous oxygen saturation as goals of early sepsis therapy: a randomized clinical trial. Jones AE. JAMA. 2010

Lower versus higher hemoglobin threshold for transfusion in septic shock. Holst LB. N Engl J Med. 2014

A randomized trial of protocol-based care for early septic shock. ProCESS Investigators. N Engl J Med. 2014

Trial of early, goal-directed resuscitation for septic shock. Mouncey PR. N Engl J Med. 2015

Goal-directed resuscitation for patients with early septic shock. ARISE Investigators. N Engl J Med. 2014

Acetaminophen for Fever in Critically Ill Patients with SuspectedInfection. Young P. N Engl J Med. 2015

NICE; Sepsis: recognition, diagnosis and early management

The Sepsis Trust

The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3). Singer M. JAMA. 2016

NHS E; Improving outcomes for patients with sepsis. A cross-system action plan

Prehospital antibiotics in the ambulance for sepsis: a multicentre, open label, randomised trial. Alam N. Lancet Respir Med. 2018

Adjunctive Glucocorticoid Therapy in Patients with Septic Shock. Venkatesh B. N Engl J Med. 2018

PHEMCAST; End Tidal Carbon Dioxide

Current clinical controversies in the management of sepsis. Cohen J. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2016

St Emlyns; qSOFA 

RCEM; Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Clinical Audit 2016/2017 National report

RCEM & UK Sepsis Trust; Toolkit: Emergency Department management of Sepsis in adults and young people over 12 years- 2016

On a not infrequent basis we will come across patients in hospital who have a CT head scan that appears to show an unsurvivable event. Having sourced opinion from our neurosurgical and neurology colleagues we may well be given the advice to withdraw care for the patient.

It has become increasingly recognised that prognosticating in such patients at an early stage is extremely difficult with numerous cases surviving what was initially thought to be an unsurvivable event, with a good neurological outcome.

This joint document from the Intensive Care Society, Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Neuro Anaesthesia and Critical Care Society of Great Britain & Ireland and the Welsh Intensive Care Society gives new guidance for such perceived devastating brain injuries and will challenge many peoples thinking on the topic with additional questions being asked on resource utilisation.

In this podcast Caroline Leech, EM and PHEM Consultant in Coventry, discusses the guidelines and the implications they hold for our practice.

As always make sure you read the document yourself, we would love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Simon & Caroline

References

Management of Perceived Devastating Brain Injury After Hospital Admission; A consensus statement 

A case for stopping the early withdrawal of life sustainingtherapies in patients with devastating brain injuries. Manara AR. J Intensive Care Soc. 2016

Welcome back, we've got 3 absolute beauties of papers for you this month!

You'll have struggled not to have heard about the ADRENAL trial, a trial of iv steroids in the sickest of patients with septic shock. We also have a look at a trial that many have been quoting as sound evidence for the utility of pH during the prognostication of patients in cardiac arrest. Finally we have a look at a paper that may shed some concern on the use of Double Sequential Defibrillation that we covered recently on the podcast...

We'd love to hear from you with any thoughts or feedback you have on the podcast. And we've now launched of Critical Appraisal Lowdown course, so if you want to gain some more skills in critical appraisal make sure you go and check out our online course here.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

TheBottomLine; ADRENAL

St Emlyns; ADRENAL

Adjunctive Glucocorticoid Therapy in Patients with Septic Shock. Venkatesh B. N Engl J Med. 2018

External Defibrillator Damage Associated With Attempted Synchronized Dual-Dose Cardioversion. Gerstein NS. Ann Emerg Med. 2018

Initial blood pH during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients: a multicenter observational registry-based study. Shin J. Crit Care. 2017

In this episode we cover a paper that you have to know about!

The use of tranexamic acid(or TXA) has become widespread in the case of major trauma and post partum haemorrhage. This time we discuss a recent paper that asks us if giving it within 3 hours is enough, or whether we need to be even more specific regarding its urgency of administration in order to save lives from bleeding.

There is a superb podcast over at our buddies site PHEMCAST which covers an interview with one of the authors and we'd highly recommend listening to that!

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References

Effect of treatment delay on the effectiveness and safety of antifibrinolytics in acute severe haemorrhage: a meta-analysis of individual patient-level data from 40 138 bleeding patients. Gayet-Ageron A. Lancet. 2017

Prehospital Care is evolving rapidly and is one of the most exciting and dynamic specialties to be involved with at the moment.

As a reflection of it's progress the Faculty of Pre Hospital Care held  its first scientific conference this week. We were lucky enough to be invited by Caroline Leech, EM & PHEM Consultant and the person responsible for organising this superb event, to interview some of the superb speakers at the event.

Here are the speakers we were lucky enough to catch up with and the topics they discuss

Matt Thomas – Hyperoxia: when oxygen is harmful

Jo Manson – The hyperacute inflammatory response to trauma

Rob Moss – FPHC Consensus Statement - Spinal

Malcolm Russell – FPHC Consensus Statemnent – External Haemorrhage

Tim Nutbeam – Pre-hospital research: what do we not know? 

David Menzies – Impact brain apnoea & motorsport

Stacey Webster – Calcium in pre-hospital blood transfusion: the missing link

Rod Mackenzie Injury prevention, control & recovery

A huge thanks to all involved in the conference for having us at the conference and we hope to see you all next year!

Simon, Rob & James

Ionised calcium levels in major trauma patients who received blood in the Emergency Department. Webster S. Emerg Med J. 2016

TOP-ART

Happy New Year!!

Welcome back to the podcast and what we hope will be a superb year. We've got three excellent papers that are extremely relevant to our practice and will have an impact on practice.

First up it's a paper looking at the benefit of iv versus oral paracetamol in the Emergency Department, something we do really frequently but what does the evidence say? Next we have a look at the difference that topical TXA could make to epistaxis in terms of bleeding cessation. Lastly we look at a systematic review looking at adenosine versus calcium channel blockers for SVT.

Very soon we'll be releasing our Critical Appraisal Lowdown course, so keep an eye out for that.

And finally a huge thanks to our sponsors ADPRAC for all of the support with TheResusRoom.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

Handover matters.

Handover of patient care occurs at multiple points in the patient's journey and is a crucial point for transference of information and inter professional working.

Whether it's the big trauma in Resus with the prehospital services presenting to the big crowd, right the way through to the patient coming to minors who looks like they will be going home shorty, each of these transactions of information needs to be done correctly.

Handover can be stressful though and different parties will have different priorities that they are trying to juggle. In this podcast we explore handover, some of the barriers and issues that exist. We have a look at the evidence that exists on it's importance, impact and associated techniques. We also look at tools that exist that can be used to facilitate effective handover.

As ever make sure you look at the articles mentioned in the podcast yourself and we would love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

Information loss in emergency medical services handover of trauma patients. Carter AJ. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2009

Maintaining eye contact: how to communicate at handover. Dean E. Emerg Nurse. 2012

The handover process and triage of ambulance-borne patients: the experiences of emergency nurses. Bruce K. Nurs Crit Care. 2005

Handover from paramedics: observations and emergency department clinician perceptions. Yong G. Emerg Med Australas. 2008 

Review article: Improving the hospital clinical handover between paramedics and emergencydepartment staff in the deteriorating patient. Dawson S. Emerg Med Australas. 2013

You've got a critically unwell patient who needs an RSI. You've got lots of things to think about but specifically do you ramp them up or keep them supine, additionally do you use a checklist or are those things a complete waste of time? This month we have a look at 2 papers which should shed some light on the subject.

We also look at a systematic review and meta-analysis which hopefully helps us answer a question we've been looking at on the podcast for quite some time: in the the context of a cardiac arrest that has gained a ROSC, if the ECG is not diagnostic of a STEMI but the history is suggestive of a cardiac event, should the patient go straight to the cathlab for PCI?

As always don't just take our word for it but go and have a look at the papers yourself and we would love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

A Multicenter, Randomized Trial of Ramped Position vs Sniffing Position During Endotracheal Intubation of Critically Ill Adults. Semler MW. Chest. 2017

A Multicenter Randomized Trial of a Checklist for Endotracheal Intubation of Critically Ill Adults. Janz DR. Chest. 2017

Early coronary angiography in patients resuscitated from out of hospital cardiac arrest without ST-segment elevation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Khan MS. Resuscitation. 2017

JC: Should non ST elevation ROSC patients go to cath lab? St.Emlyn’s

CHECK-UP Checklist; The Bottom Line 

Traumatic Cardiac Arrest; for many of us an infrequent presentation and it that lies the problem.

In our previous cardiac arrest podcast we talked about the approach to the arresting patient, however in trauma the approach change significantly.

We require a different set of skills and priorities and having the whole team on board whilst sharing the same mental model is key.

Have a listen to the podcast and let us know your thoughts. The references are below but if you only read one thing take a look at the ERC Guidelines on traumatic cardiac arrest which we refer to.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

Resuscitation to Recovery Document

Roadside to Resus; Cardiac Arrest

ERC Guidelines; Traumatic Arrest

Traumatic cardiac arrest: who are the survivors? Lockey D. Ann Emerg Med. 2006

Conversion to shockable rhythms during resuscitation and survival for out-of hospital cardiac arrest. Wah W. Am J Emerg Med. 2017 

Resuscitation attempts and duration in traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Beck B. Resuscitation 2017.

An evidence-based approach to patient selection for emergency department thoracotomy: A practice management guideline from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. Seamon MJ. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2015

EAST guidelines 2015; ED Thoracotomy

FAST ultrasound examination as a predictor of outcomes after resuscitative thoracotomy: a prospective evaluation. Inaba K. Ann Surg. 2015

If you talk to people about the topic of thrombolysis in PE they'll tell you about the controversy of the submassive category, but there's a universal acceptance that thrombolysing massive PE's is well evidenced and straight forward.

In this episode we delve back into the literature and not only explore massive PE thrombolysis, but also the gold standard to which it is judged upon, heparin.

Have a listen to the podcast and as always we would love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

2014 ESC Guidelines on the diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism

British Thoracic Society guidelines for the management of suspected acute pulmonary embolism; 2003

Antithrombotic Therapy for VTE Disease CHEST Guideline and Expert Panel Report; 2016

Management of Massive and Submassive Pulmonary Embolism, Iliofemoral Deep Vein Thrombosis, and Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension. A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. 2011

Venous thromboembolic diseases: diagnosis, management and thrombophilia testing; NICE. 2012

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1438862/pdf/jrsocmed00257-0051.pdfValue of anticoagulants in the treatment of pulmonary embolism: a discussion paper. Paul Egermayer. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 1981.

Anticoagulant drugs in the treatment of pulmonary embolism. A controlled trial. BARRITT DW. Lancet. 1960

Treatment of pulmonary embolism in total hip replacement. Johnson R. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1977

PAIMS 2: alteplase combined with heparin versus heparin in the treatment of acute pulmonary embolism. Plasminogen activator Italian multicenter study 2. Dalla-Volta S. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1992 

Alteplase versus heparin in acute pulmonary embolism: randomised trial assessing right-ventricular function and pulmonary perfusion. Goldhaber SZ. Lancet. 1993

Thrombolysis Compared With Heparin for the Initial Treatment of Pulmonary Embolism.  A Meta-Analysis of the Randomized Controlled Trials. Susan Wan. 2004

Massive PE and cardiogenic shock. To thrombolyse or not to thrombolyse, that is the question. Francoise Ticehurst. BestBets. 2004

Welcome back to November's papers podcast!

This month we've got some great topics to discuss.

We look at another paper on the topic of oxygen therapy, this time a hug article from JAMA on oxygen therapy in the context of acute stroke and the impact on disability.

Next up we look at a fascinating case report of a extradural haematoma that was drained via an I.O. needle prior to surgical evacuation.

Lastly we follow up on our previous podcast on PE; the controversy, which looked at the prevalence of PE in those patients presenting with undifferentiated syncope. This paper puts a great counter to the conclusions arrived at in that Prandoni paper.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Effect of Routine Low-Dose Oxygen Supplementation on Death and Disability in Adults With Acute Stroke: The Stroke Oxygen Study Randomized Clinical Trial. Roffe C. JAMA. 2017

Temporising extradural haematoma by craniostomy using an intraosseous needle. Bulstrode H. Injury. 2017 

Prevalence of pulmonary embolism in patients presenting with syncope. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Oqab Z. Am J Emerg Med. 2017 

Last time in Roadside to Resus we discussed cardiac arrest with a view to obtaining a return in spontaneous circulation, ROSC.

However gaining a ROSC is just one step along the long road to discharging a patient with a good neurological function back into the community. In fact ROSC is really where all of the hard work really starts!

In this podcast we talk more about the evidence base and algorithms that exist to guide and support practice once a ROSC is achieved. We'd strongly encourage you to go and have a look at the references and resources yourself listed below and would love to hear your feedback in the comments section or via twitter.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

Resuscitation to Recovery Document

Targeted Temperature Management at 33°C versus 36°C after Cardiac Arrest. Niklas Nielsen. N Engl J Med 2013

Immediate percutaneous coronary intervention is associated with better survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: insights from the PROCAT (Parisian Region Out of hospital Cardiac ArresT) registry. Dumas F. Circ Cardiovasc Interv. 2010

Predictors of poor neurological outcome in adult comatose survivors of cardiac arrest: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Part 2: Patients treated with therapeutic hypothermia. Sandroni C. Resuscitation. 2013

Roadside to Resus; Cardiac Arrest

PCI following ROSC; TRR

This podcast covers some highlights from the talks at the BASICS and The Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care 2017 Conference.

We were lucky enough to be invited by Caroline Leech to cover the day and managed to grab a couple of minutes with a handful of the superb speakers;

Dr. Tom Evens; Elite sports for high performance clinicians

Dr. Les Gordon; Pre-hospital management of hypothermia

Dr. Helen Milne; Retrieval and transfer medicine

Surgeon Commander Kate Prior; The battlefield

Dr Chris Press; Prehospital management of diving emergencies

Miss Aimee Yarrington; Obstetric Emergencies

Professor Mark Wilson; Pre-hospital Care, where are we going?

Thanks to all involved for making the podcast and for a great day at the conference, and to PHEMCAST for the collaboration!

Simon, Rob & Clare

Welcome back to October's papers podcast!

This month we have a look at a paper that shines further light on the use of ultrasound in predicting fluid responsiveness in the spontaneously ventilating patient. We look at a paper that sets to challenge the concerns over hyperoxia in presumed myocardial infarction. And lastly we look at how stress impacts in a cardiac arrest situation on the team leader's performance.

Make sure you have a look at the papers yourself and we would love to hear any feedback and alternative thoughts on the ones we cover! Lastly thanks for your support with the podcast

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Oxygen Therapy in Suspected Acute Myocardial Infarction. Hofmann R. N Engl J Med. 2017 

Relationship between non-technical skills and technical performance during cardiopulmonary resuscitation: does stress have an influence? Krage R. Emerg Med J. 2017

iSepsis – Vena Caval Ultrasonography – Just Don’t Do It!; EMCrit

The Bottom Line; DETO2X-AMI

JC: Oxygen in ACS. A fuss about nothing? The DETO2X Trial at St.Emlyn’s

We have a significant way to go with respect to our cardiac arrest management.

‘Cardiopulmoary Resuscitation is attempted in nearly 30,000 people who suffered OHCA in England each year, but survival rates are low and compare unfavourably to a number of other countries’

-  Resuscitation to Recovery 2017

25% of patients get a ROSC with 7-8% of patients surviving to hospital discharge, which as mentioned is hugely below some countries.

In this podcast we run through cardiac arrest management and the associated evidence base, right from chest compressions, through to drugs, prognostication and ceasing resuscitation attempts.

Make sure you take a look at the papers and references yourself and we would love to hear you feedback!

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

Resuscitation to Recovery Document

"Kids Save Lives": Educating Schoolchildren in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Is a Civic DutyThat Needs Support for Implementation. Böttiger BW. J Am Heart Assoc. 2017

Association Between Tracheal Intubation During Adult In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest and Survival.Andersen LW. JAMA. 2017

Double sequential Defibrillation therapy for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: the London experience. Emmerson AC, et al. Resuscitation. 2017

Dual sequential defibrillation: Does one plus one equal two? Deakin CD. Resuscitation. 2016

Thrombolysis during resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Böttiger BW. N Engl J Med. 2008

Mechanical versus manual chest compression for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (PARAMEDIC): a pragmatic, cluster randomised controlled trial. Perkins GD. Lancet. 2015

Mechanical chest compressions and simultaneous defibrillation vs conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: the LINC randomized trial. Rubertsson S. JAMA. 2014

Effect of epinephrine on survival after cardiac arrest: a systematic review and meta analysis. Patanwala AE. Minerva Anestesiol. 2014

Impact of cardiopulmonary resuscitation duration on survival from paramedic witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: An observational study. Nehme Z. 2016 Mar;100:25-31. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2015.12.011. Epub 2016 Jan 13.

Predicting in-hospital mortality during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Schultz SC. Resuscitation. 1996

Accuracy of point-of-care focused echocardiography in predicting outcome of resuscitation in cardiac arrest patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Tsou PY. Resuscitation. 2017

End-tidal CO2 as a predictor of survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Eckstein M. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2011

LITFL; cessation of CPR

Bicarbonate use in cardiac arrest.

The topic still provokes debate and multiple publications on the topic still hit the press reels. People talk of the increased rate of ROSC and the improvement in metabolic state, whilst others talk of the increase in mortality and worsening of intracellular acidosis.

A recent paper in Resuscitation looked at a huge cohort of patients receiving bicarbonate in arrest prehospitally. In this episode we take a look at the paper, review the guidelines and give our take on the current situation with regards bicarb in arrest

We hope you enjoy it and would love to hear your feedback!

Simon &  Rob

References & Further Reading

Prehospital Sodium Bicarbonate Use Could Worsen Long Term Survival with Favorable Neurological Recovery among Patients with Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. Kawano T, et al. Resuscitation. 2017

Use of Sodium Bicarbonate in Cardiac Arrest: Current Guidelines and Literature. Velissaris D, et al. J Clin Med Res. 2016

Effect of Sodium Bicarbonate on Advanced Cardiac Life Support. Jungyoup Lee. Circulation 2014

Advanced Life Support; Bicarbonate guidance

So we're back with some superb topics this month;

• Early or late intubation in ICU patients, which is associated with worse outcomes?
• What are the predictors of a poor outcome in patients presenting with syncope?
• Does a cervical collar result in a demonstrable raise in ICP viewed by ultrasound?

Make sure you take a look at the papers yourself, they certainly provide food for thought and raise important questions in our practice

Let us know any thoughts and feedback you have on the podcast and thanks for your support with the podcast

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Predicting Short-Term Risk of Arrhythmia among Patients with Syncope: The Canadian Syncope Arrhythmia Risk Score. Thiruganasambandamoorthy V. Acad Emerg Med. 2017 

This is the second part of the Roadside to Resus discussion on asthma. Make sure you’ve listened to part 1 before delving into this one!

Part 2 covers

• Ketamine
• Ultrasound in asthma
• NIV in asthma
• Asthma related cardiac arrest
• • Imaging
  • Management
• Discharge

We hope you enjoy the episode and would love to hear your feedback!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

BTS Asthma Guidelines 2016

Intravenous or nebulised magnesium sulphate versus standard therapy for severe acute asthma (3Mg trial): a double-blind, randomised controlled trial. Goodacre S. Lancet Respir Med. 2013 

Detection of pneumothoraces in patients with multiple blunt trauma: use and limitations of eFAST. Sauter TC. Emerg Med J. 2017

Chest wall thickness and decompression failure: A systematic review and meta-analysis comparing anatomic locations in needle thoracostomy. Laan DV. Injury. 2016

TheResusRoom; Needle Thoracostomy podcast

TheResusRoom; BTS Asthma Guidelines 2016 podcast

LITFL; Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and asthma

Intensiveblog; Asthma mechanical Ventilation Pitfalls

BestBets; In a severe Exacerbation of asthma can Ketamine be used to avoid the need for mechanical ventilation in adults?

Asthma is a common disease and presents to acute healthcare services extremely frequently.

The majority of presentations are mild exacerbations of a known diagnosis and are relatively simple to assess and treat, many being completely appropriate for out patient treatment.

On the other hand around 200 deaths per year are attributable in the UK to asthma, and therefore in the relatively young group of patients there is a real potential for critical illness with catastrophic consequence if not treated effectively. The majority of these deaths occur prior to the patient making it to hospital making the prehospital phase extremely important and hugely stressful in these cases.

It is also worth noting that of the deaths reported that many were associated with inadequate inhaled corticosteroids or steroid tablets and inadequate follow up, meaning that our encounter with these patients at all stages of their care even if not that severe at the point of assessment is a key opportunity to discuss and educate about treatment plans and reasons to return.

In part 1 of this podcast we will run through

• Pathophysiology
• How patients present
• Guidelines
• Treatment
  • Salbutamol
  • Ipratropium
  • Steroids
  • Magnesium

Part 2 will be out shortly, we hope you enjoy the episode and would love to hear your feedback!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

BTS Asthma Guidelines 2016

Intravenous or nebulised magnesium sulphate versus standard therapy for severe acute asthma (3Mg trial): a double-blind, randomised controlled trial. Goodacre S. Lancet Respir Med. 2013 

Detection of pneumothoraces in patients with multiple blunt trauma: use and limitations of eFAST. Sauter TC. Emerg Med J. 2017

Chest wall thickness and decompression failure: A systematic review and meta-analysis comparing anatomic locations in needle thoracostomy. Laan DV. Injury. 2016

TheResusRoom; Needle Thoracostomy podcast

TheResusRoom; BTS Asthma Guidelines 2016 podcast

LITFL; Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and asthma

Intensiveblog; Asthma mechanical Ventilation Pitfalls

BestBets; In a severe Exacerbation of asthma can Ketamine be used to avoid the need for mechanical ventilation in adults?

We're back with more great papers for you this month, hot off the press!

There's been a lot of talk over the last few years about apnoeic oxygenation and whether it really holds any benefit to patients undergoing RSI, we have a look at a systematic review that may help answer that question.

Next up we have a look at the choice of sedation agent used in the Emergency Department and how this correlates with patient satisfaction.

Finally, following on from our recent podcast on Double Sequential Defibrillation, we have a look at a paper published looking at the results of DSD from the London prehospital service. Will this reveal a patient benefit?

Let us know any thoughts and feedback you have on the podcast and thanks for your support with the podcast.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Apneic oxygenation reduces the incidence of hypoxemia during emergency intubation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Pavlov I. Am J Emerg Med. 2017

Patient satisfaction with procedural sedation in the emergency department. Johnson OG. Emerg Med Australas. 2017

Double sequential defibrillation therapy for out-of-hospitalcardiac arrests: The London experience. Emmerson AC. Resuscitation. 2017

This is the first of a new series of Roadside to Resus podcasts. We've been joined by James Yates, a Critical Care Paramedic with the Great Western Air Ambulance to make it a truly multidisciplinary team.

Each monthly episode we'll be discussing acute presentations, including the latest and most influential evidence base surrounding them. We really want  to break down some barriers between pre-hospital and in hospital teams and it soon becomes evident in this first podcast that many of the problems we face are shared throughout the patient journey and across disciplines!

We're starting off with Acute Heart Failure and in the podcast we run through;

• The underlying physiology and help explain the different problems we may find in each subset
• The keys to diagnosis, including the most predictive parts of history and examination
• We discuss the evidence base for treatment and the trends of use both pre and in-hospital
• We talk about CPAP and whether the evidence supports it's use
• Finally, the direction that further treatment in the UK may move

Once again we hope you find the podcast useful. Get in touch with any comments, questions or suggestions for further topics. Most of all don't take our word for it, but make sure you delve into the references yourself and make up your own mind.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

References & Further Reading

Recommendations on pre-hospital & early hospital management of acute heart failure: a consensus paper from the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology, the European Society of Emergency Medicine and the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine

Understanding cardiac output. Jean-Louis Vincent. Crit Care. 2008.

2016 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure

The pathophysiology of hypertensive acute heart failure. Viau DM. Heart. 2015

Meta-analysis: Noninvasive Ventilation in Acute Cardiogenic Pulmonary Edema. Weng. Annals Int Med. 2010 

Does This Dyspneic Patient in the Emergency Department Have Congestive Heart Failure? Charlie S.JAMA 2005

Diagnosing Acute Heart Failure in the Emergency Department; A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Martindale. Academic Emergency Medicine. 2016

Noninvasive ventilation in acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema. Gray A. N Engl J Med. 2008

Life in the Fast Lane; severe heart failure management

Emergency Medicine Cases; acute congestive heart failure

REBEL.EM; morphine kills in acute decompensated heart failure 

EMCRIT 1; Sympathetic Crashing Acute Pulmonary Edema (SCAPE)

C-spine immobilisation is a controversial topic because of a lack of high quality evidence from clinical trials. Historical approaches have been challenged, however NICE guidance continues to recommend 3-point immobilisation for all patients with suspected spinal injury despite considerable clinical equipoise.

Rob

We're back with 3 superb topics this month!

First off we have a look at the utility of ultrasound for the detection of pneumothoraces in the context of blunt trauma.

Next we look at the need to scan facial bones when scanning a patient's head following trauma.

Last of all we look at a paper reviewing the association between the use of a bougie and the first pass success when performing ED RSI.

Have a listen to the podcast and most importantly make sure you have a look at the references and critically appraise the papers yourself. We'd love to hear your thoughts and comments at the bottom of the page.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Detection of pneumothoraces in patients with multiple blunt trauma: use and limitations of eFAST. Sauter TC. Emerg Med J. 2017

Simultaneous head and facial computed tomography scans for assessing facial fractures in patients with traumatic brain injury. Huang LK. Injury. 2017 

The Bougie and First-Pass Success in the Emergency Department. Driver B. Ann Emerg Med. 2017

Guidelines. Algorithms. Evidence based medicine. These all play a significant part in the safe and effective management of the majority of our patients. As a result there is a danger that treatment pathways are followed blindly without critiquing their use and there is real risk we can loose sight of what’s best for the patient in front of us. Guidelines encourage inflexible decision making, which creates further challenge when we are met by patients who do not fit standard treatment pathways.

If this is the case then the management of cardiac arrest, which is taught and delivered in a didactic and protocol driven fashion, is surely the pinnacle of the problem. Standard Advanced Life Support (ALS) is totally appropriate for the majority of cardiac arrests, but what happens when it fails our patients? Refractory ventricular fibrillation (rVF) is, by its very nature, defined by the failure of ALS, but frustratingly there is very little evidence, or guidance, surrounding how to manage this patient group.

I was faced with this situation when called to support an ambulance crew who were resuscitating an out-of-hospital VF arrest. When benchmarked against the ALS guidelines their management had been exemplary, but the patient remained in VF after eight shocks. So what now? The UK Resuscitation Council doesn’t specifically discuss rVF, but offers the advice that it is “usually worthwhile continuing” if the patient remains in VF. Not a particularly controversial statement, but not much help either. They do discuss the potential for ECMO use, but this is currently a very rare option in UK practice, or thrombolysis for known or suspected pulmonary embolism.

Other potential interventions not in the guidelines include IV magnesium and placing defibrillator pads in the anterior-posterior orientation. PCI can also be considered if there is a suitable receiving centre available and the patient can be delivered in a safe and timely fashion.

A final option is the use of double sequential defibrillation (DSD), using two defibrillators, charged to their maximum energy setting, to deliver two shocks in an almost simultaneous fashion.DSD was first described in human subjects in 1994 when it was used to successfully defibrillate five patients who entered rVF during routine electrophysiologic testing. These patients were otherwise refractory to between seven and twenty single shocks. Looking at the available literature there has been little interest in DSD since then, until the last two to three years when it appears to have undergone a small revival. Sadly, there is no evidence for its use beyond case reports and small case series. The case reports appear to show good results with four in the last two years reporting survival to discharge with good neurological outcome. There are also a handful of other cases discussed in online blogs and articles with good outcomes. But these case reports and articles almost certainly represent an excellent example of publication bias. The most recent case series reviewed the use of DSD by an American ambulance service over a period of four years. During this time DSD was written into their refractory VF protocol, with rVF defined as failure of five single shocks. The study included twelve patients, three of whom survived to discharge with two of these demonstrating a cerebral performance score of 1. Despite appearing to demonstrate reasonable outcomes for DSD, sadly this study has a number of significant limitations. One important point the authors fail to discuss is that the two neurologically intact survivors received their DSD shocks after two and three single shocks respectively, not after five shocks which would have been per-protocol and consistent with the authors definition of refractory VF.

This highlights a further problem with analysing the use of DSD. Not only is there a dearth of high-level evidence, but the literature that is available is highly inconsistent. There are a range of definitions for refractory VF, different orientations for the second set of pads, variable interventions prior to using DSD, a variety of timings between the shocks and so on. This means that comparison between studies and drawing meaningful conclusions is nearly impossible. Given these challenges, what are the explanations for why DSD might work?

The first theory is that by using DSD the myocardium is defibrillated with a broader energy vector compared to a single set of pads resulting in a more complete depolarisation of the myocardium. A second theory is that the first shock reduces the ventricular defibrillation threshold meaning that the second shock is more effective. A third explanation may simply be the large amount of energy delivered to the myocardium. These theories should be tempered by the fact that studies have demonstrated increasing defibrillation energy to result in increased defibrillation success, but only up to a plateau. After this the success of defibrillation drops sharply. Increased energy use has also been demonstrated to cause an increase in A-V block but without an associated increase in shock success or patient outcome.

The use of double sequential defibrillation is clearly an area that would benefit from further research, but despite this it is interesting to note that London Ambulance Service have enabled their Advanced Paramedic Practitioners to use DSD and some American EMS systems have written DSD into their protocols.

So returning to the case in point what did I choose to do with my patient?

After changing the pad position, administering magnesium and continuing defibrillation they remained in VF.  I considered transport to a hospital with interventional cardiology but the patient was several stories up in a property with an inherently complex extrication. So I chose to use DSD because I felt that all other avenues had been explored. The patient had suffered a witnessed arrest, received bystander CPR immediately and throughout the resuscitation they had maintained a high end tidal CO2 and a coarse VF. I felt that this was a patient who could still respond to non-standard cardiac arrest management in the absence of a response to guideline directed treatment. After two DSD shocks a return of spontaneous circulation was achieved and the patient survived to hospital admission, but sadly didn’t survive to hospital discharge.

We’re left with a even bigger question: if we accept that DSD is a potentially useful intervention in rVF, when should we consider using it? Would the outcome for this patient have been different if DSD had been used earlier?

The European Resuscitation Council states that the use of double sequential defibrillation cannot be recommended for routine use. But treating rVF is not routine and the guidelines have otherwise failed our patient. It is said that insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again, without changing anything, and expecting a different result. Is this not what the guidelines preach in rVF? It is up to you, the clinician, to determine whether DSD is appropriate for each rVF case you encounter. But I urge you to consider the patient in front of you and tailor your resuscitation to their needs, whether that includes DSD or an alternative option. Personally, I believe DSD does have a place in the management of rVF patients, after considering the other interventions previously discussed. Given that shock success declines over time, DSD could be used as early as the sixth shock, because at this point the guidelines have nothing further to add. Or maybe it’s me who’s insane…

James Yates (Critical Care Paramedic GWAAC)

References

Double sequential Defibrillation therapy for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: the London experience. Emmerson AC, et al. Resuscitation. 2017 

A Case Series of Double Sequence Defibrillation. Merlin MA. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2016

Double sequential external shocks for refractory ventricular fibrillation. Hoch DH. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1994

Double Sequential External Defibrillation in Out-of-Hospital Refractory Ventricular Fibrillation: A Reportof Ten Cases. Cabañas JG. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2015

Double Sequential Defibrillation for Refractory Ventricular Fibrillation: A Case Report. Lybeck AM. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2015

Double simultaneous defibrillators for refractory ventricular fibrillation. Leacock BW. J Emerg Med. 2014

Simultaneous use of two defibrillators for the conversion of refractory ventricular fibrillation. Gerstein NS. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. 2015

Use of double sequential external defibrillation for refractory ventricular fibrillation during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Cortez E. Resuscitation. 2016 

Double Sequential External Defibrillation and Survival from Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A CaseReport. Johnston M. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2016

Dual defibrillation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A retrospectivecohort analysis. Ross EM. Resuscitation. 2016

Refractory Ventricular Fibrillation Successfully Cardioverted With Dual Sequential Defibrillation. Sena RC. J Emerg Med. 2016

Dual sequential defibrillation: Does one plus one equal two? Deakin CD. Resuscitation. 2016

Magnesium therapy for refractory ventricular fibrillation. Baraka A. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. 2000 

High quality manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with minimal delays has been shown to improve outcomes following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). There are concerns that the quality of CPR can diminish over time and as little as 1 minute of CPR can lead to fatigue and deviation from the current recommended rate and depth of compressions.

With this in mind, a mechanical device to provide chest compressions at a constant rate, depth and without tiring has considerable theoretical benefits to patients, yet clinical equipoise remains about the role for this treatment modality.

In this podcast, we discuss and critically appraise 2 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) set out to answer exactly that question and give our take on the role for mechanical CPR devices in the future

Hope you enjoy and feel free to leave any feedback below!

Rob

References 

Mechanical versus manual chest compression for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (PARAMEDIC): a pragmatic, cluster randomised controlled trial. Perkins GD. Lancet. 2015

Mechanical chest compressions and simultaneous defibrillation vs conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: the LINC randomized trial. Rubertsson S. JAMA. 2014

We're back with another look at the papers most relevant to our practice in and around The Resus Room.

The WOMAN trial was a huge trial that looked at tranexamic acid in post partum haemorrhage, it's gained a lot of attention online and we kick things off having a look at the paper ourselves.

Next up, and following on nicely from our previous Cardiac Arrest Centres podcast, we have a look at a systematic review and meta-analysis on whether prolonged transfer times in patients following cardiac arrest affects outcomes.

Finally we have a look at a paper on management of PEs in cardiac arrest which draws some very interesting conclusions on the management of such cases and the associated outcomes!

Please make sure you go and have a look at the papers yourself and as ever huge thanks to our sponsors ADPRAC for making this all possible.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Effect of early tranexamic acid administration on mortality, hysterectomy, and other morbidities in women with post-partum haemorrhage (WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. WOMAN Trial Collaborators.Lancet 2017

Does transport time of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients matter? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Geri G. Resuscitation 2017 

Pulmonary embolism related sudden cardiac arrest admitted alive at hospital: Management and outcomes. Bougouin W. Resuscitation. 2017

The Woman Trial; The Bottom Line

Oxygen is probably the drug that we give the most but possibly has the least governance over.  More has got to be good except in those at high risk of type II respiratory failure right?? Well as we know the evidence base has swung to challenge that idea in recent years and the new BTS guidelines for Oxygen use in Healthcare and Emergency Settings has just been published with a few things that are worth reviewing since the original publication in 2008. No apologies that this may be predominantly old ground here, this is an area we're all involved with day in and day out that is simple to correct and affects mortality

Historically oxygen has been given without prescription;

• 42% of patients in the 2015 BTS audit had no accompanying prescription
• When it is prescribed this doesn't always correlate with delivery
• 1/3 of patients were outside of target SpO2 range (10% below & 22% above)

If nothing else is taken from this document then reinforcement of the fact that we need to keep oxygen saturations normal/near normal for all patients, except groups at risk of type II respiratory failure

Prescribe and delivery oxygen by target oxygen saturations

What is normal?

• Normal Oxygen saturations for healthy young adults is approximately 96-98%, there is minor decrease with increasing age.
• Healthy subjects desaturate to 90% SpO2 during night time; be cautious interpreting a single oximetry reading from a sleeping patient, short duration overnight dips are normal

Will mental status give me an early indication of hypoxaemia?

• No, impaired mental function at a mean value of SaO2 64%, no evidence above SaO2 84%
• Loss of consciousness at a mean SaO2 56%

Aims of oxygen therapy

• Correct potentially harmful hypoxia
• Alleviate breathlessness only in those hypoxic

Why the fuss about hyperoxia?

Hyperoxia has been shown to be associated with

• Risk to COPD patients and those at risk of type II respiratory failure
• Increased CK level in STEMI and increased infarct size on MR scan at 3 months
• Association of hyperoxaemia with increased mortality in several ITU studies
• Worsens systolic myocardial performance
• Absorption Atelectasis even at FIO2 30-50%
• Intrapulmonary shunting
• Post-operative hypoxaemia
• Coronary vasoconstriction
• Increased Systemic Vascular Resistance
• Reduced Cardiac Index
• Possible reperfusion injury post MI

In patients with COPD studies have showed most hypercapnia patients arriving at hospital with the equivalent of SpO2 > 92% were acidotic, high concentration O2has been associated with more than double the mortality rate in those with acute exacerbations of COPD. Titrate O2 delivery down smoothly

Which patients are at risk of CO2 retention and acidosis if given high dose oxygen?

• Chronic hypoxic lung disease
  • COPD/CF/Bronchiectasis
• Chest wall disease
  • Kyphoscoliosis
  • Thoracoplasty
• Neuromuscular disease
• Morbid obesity with hypo ventilatory syndrome

What is the oxygen target?

Oxygen titrated to an SpO2 of 94-98%

Except in those at risk of hypercapnia respiratory failure, then 88-92%(or specific SpO2 on patient's alert card)

What about in Palliative Care?

Most breathlessness in cancer patients is caused by airflow obstruction, infections or pleural effusions and in these cases the issues need to be addressed. Oxygen does relieve breathlessness in hyperaemic cancer patients but not if SpO2 >90%. Midazolam and morphine also relieve breathlessness and are more likely to be effective.

Delivery Devices

• Reservior masks can deliver O2 concentrations between 60-80%
• Nasal cannualae at 1-6L/min can deliver 24-50%
• Venturi masks allow accurate delivery of O2
• If tachypnoeic over 30 breaths per minute an increase over the marked flow rate should be delivered, note this won't increase the FiO2!

Equivalent doses of O2

24% venturi = 1L O2

28 % venturi = 2L O2

35% venturi = 4L O2

40% venturi = nasal/facemask 5-6LO2

60% venturi = 7-10L simple face mask

Approach to oxygen delivery

Firstly determine if at risk of type II respiratory failure

If not;

• SpO2 < 94%, deliver oxygen
• Perform an ABG
  • If high PCO2 consider invasive ventilation, in the interim aim SpO2 94-98%
  • If PCO2 normal or low aim SpO2 94-98% and repeat ABG in 30-60 minutes

If at risk of type II respiratory failure

• Obtain ABG if hypoxic or already on oxygen
  • If a respiratory acidosis consider NIV, address medical condition and senior review. Treat with the lowest FiO2 via venturi or nasal specs to maintain an SpO2 88-92%
  • If hypercapnia but not acidotic, titrate the lowest FiO2 via venturi or nasal specs to maintain an SpO2 88-92%. Repeat ABG after change of treatment/deterioration. Consider reducing FiO2 if PO2 on ABG >8kPa
  • If PCO2 < 6 (normal or low) aim to keep SpO2 94-98% and repeat the ABG in 30-60 minutes

Points specific to prehospital oxygen use

• A sudden reduction in 3% of SpO2 within the target range should prompt a fuller assessment of the patient
• Pulse oximetry must be available in all locations in which oxygen is being used
• Some patients over the age of 70 when clinically stable may have SpO2 between 92-94%, these patients don't require O2 therapy unless the SpO2 falls below the level that is known to be normal for that individual
• Patients with COPD should initially be given oxygen via 24% venturi at 2-4L/min or 28% mask at a flow rate 4L/min, or nasal cannulae at 1-2L/min aiming for 88-92%
• Patients over 50 years of age and long term smoker with a history of SOB on exertion and no other cause for their breathlessness should be treated as having COPD.
• Limit O2 driven nebs, if no air driven nebs available, to 6 minutes in duration in patients known to have COPD

So the bottom line? Well just like Goldielock's porridge, with oxygen we don't want too little, we don't want too much but we want just the right amount!

There is no doubt that hypoxia kills but beware that too much of anything is bad for you and in the same way we need to be vigilant to targeting oxygen delivery to our patients target SpO2

References

BTS Guideline for oxygen use in healthcare and emergency settings

How many patients are admitted from your ED with suspected cardiac chest pain? What strategy of testing do you employ to rule out acute myocardial infarction? When and why do you send troponins in this process?

In this podcast Ed Carlton, Emergency Medicine Consultant at North Bristol Hospital and Troponin Researcher, talks to us about troponin rule out strategies, recent publications on the topics, where the future of troponin research is heading and most importantly what this all means for our practice.

Our previous podcast on troponins acts as a good introduction to this episode. Have a listen to both and we'd love to hear your comments at the bottom of the page and we hope you found this as useful as we did!

Enjoy

Simon

References

Rapid Rule-out of Acute Myocardial Infarction With a Single High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin TMeasurement Below the Limit of Detection: A Collaborative Meta-analysis. Pickering JW. Ann Intern Med. 2017 

Effect of Using the HEART Score in Patients With Chest Pain in the Emergency Department: A Stepped-Wedge, Cluster Randomized Trial. Poldervaart JM. Ann Intern Med. 2017

Comparison of the Efficacy and Safety of Early Rule-Out Pathways for Acute Myocardial Infarction. Chapman AR. Circulation. 2017

This month we've got a good variety of topics.

We look at an recent systematic review and meta analysis on the prognostic value of echo in life support, an update from Blyth's paper in 2012. We review a paper looking at testing gin patients presenting to the emergency department in SVT. Finally we cover a paper looking at different methods employed when running an Emergency Department.

As always make sure you go and have a read of the papers yourselves and come up with your own conclusions, we'd love to hear your feedback.

Enjoy!

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Accuracy of point-of-care focused echocardiography in predicting outcome of resuscitation in cardiac arrest patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Tsou PY. Resuscitation. 2017

Usefulness of laboratory and radiological investigations in the management of supraventricular tachycardia. Ashok A. Emerg Med Australas.2017

What do emergency physicians in charge do? A qualitative observational study. Hosking I. Emerg Med J. 2017 

This podcast is taken from a talk I gave at Grand Rounds at The Bristol Royal Infirmary on the Top 10 Papers in EM over the last 12 months.

Many of these have been covered in previous podcasts, but running through them gives a good opportunity for further recap and reflection.

Papers Covered;

Chest wall thickness and decompression failure: A systematic review and meta-analysis comparing anatomic locations in needle thoracostomy. Laan DV1. Injury. 2015 Dec 13. pii: S0020-1383(15)00768-8. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2015.11.045. [Epub ahead of print]

(more in February'sPapers of the month)

Platelet transfusion versus standard care after acute stroke due to spontaneous cerebral haemorrhage associated with antiplatelet therapy (PATCH): a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial. Baharoglu MI. Lancet.2016 May 9. pii: S0140-6736(16)30392-0. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30392-0. [Epub ahead of print]

(more in July's Papers of the month)

Causes of Elevated Cardiac Troponins in the Emergency Department and Their Associated Mortality. Meigher S. Acad Emerg Med. 2016

(more in our Troponins podcast)

Propofol or Ketofol for Procedural Sedation and Analgesia in Emergency Medicine-The POKER Study: A Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial. Ferguson I, et al. Ann Emerg Med. 2016.

(more in September's Paper's of the month)

Prevalence of Pulmonary Embolism among Patients Hospitalized for Syncope. Prandoni P. N Engl J Med. 2016

(more in our podcast PE The Controversy)

Association Between Tracheal Intubation During Adult In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest and Survival. Andersen LW. JAMA. 2017

(more in March's Papers of the month)

Review article: Why is there still a debate regarding the safety and efficacy of intravenous thrombolysis in the management of presumed acute ischaemic stroke? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Donaldson L. Emerg Med Australas. 2016 Aug 25

(more in our Stroke Thrombolysis podcast)

Prophylactic hydration to protect renal function from intravascular iodinated contrast material in patients at high risk of contrast-induced nephropathy (AMACING): a prospective, randomised, phase 3, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority trial. Nijssen EC. Lancet. 2017

(more in April's Papers podcast)

Immediate total-body CT scanning versus conventional imaging and selective CT scanning in patients with severe trauma (REACT-2): a randomised controlled trial. Sierink JC. Lancet. 2016 Jun 28

(more in August's Papers podcast)

Accuracy of point-of-care focused echocardiography in predicting outcome of resuscitation in cardiac arrest patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Tsou PY. Resuscitation. 2017 

(more coming up in May's Papers podcast!)

Enjoy and we'll be back with our papers of the month next week!

Simon

Acute cholecystitis is a diagnosis that we make frequently in the Emergency Department. But like all diagnostic work ups there is a lot to know about which parts of the history, examination and bedside tests we can do in the ED that really help either rule in or rule out the disease.

In this podcast we run through some of the key bits of information published in the Commissioning Guide Gallstone disease 2016, jointly published by the Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland & the Royal College of Surgeons.

We then concentrate on a recent systematic review of the diagnostic work up for Acute Cholecystitis. Yet again the evidence base brings up some issues to challenge our traditional teaching on the topic but should help polish our management of patients with a differential of Acute Cholecystitis.

Enjoy!

References & Further Reading

Commissioning Guide Gallstone disease 2016

Up to date; Acute Cholecystitis

NICE guidance; Acute Cholecystitis

History, Physical Examination, Laboratory Testing, and Emergency Department Ultrasonography for the Diagnosis of Acute Cholecystitis. Jain A. Acad Emerg Med

This month we look at a paper concentrating on the risk of contrast induced nephropathy in contrasted CT scans, looking specifically at the need to hydrate at-risk patients prior to and following CT scans.

The use of prehospital blood is also under the spotlight with the ongoing RePHILL trial. We look at a paper reviewing prehospital blood use with the Kent Surrey Sussex prehospital service and the described physiological changes seen in patients receiving blood. Make sure you also go over and check out the podcast episode from PHEMCAST on the RePHILL trial with Jim Hancox.

Finally I was lucky enough to catch up with Johannes von Vopelius-Feldt, the lead author of a paper in press on the impact of prehospital critical care teams on out of hospital cardiac arrests.

You can find the fantastic opportunity of a scholarship to be an Emergency Nurse Practitioner here from ADPRAC.

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

Prophylactic hydration to protect renal function from intravascular iodinated contrast material in patients at high risk of contrast-induced nephropathy (AMACING): a prospective, randomised, phase 3, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority trial. Nijssen EC. Lancet. 2017

FOAMcast; Contrast-Induced Nephropathy and Genitourinary Trauma

RELEL.EM; The AMACING Trial: Prehydration to Prevent Contrast Induced Nephropathy (CIN)?

Royal College Radiology; Prevention of Contrast Induced Acute Kidney Injury (CI-AKI) In Adult Patients

Pre-hospital transfusion of packed red blood cells in 147 patients from a UK helicopter emergency medical service. Lyon RM. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2017

PHEMCAST; blood

Systematic review of the effectiveness of prehospital critical care following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. von Vopelius-Feldt J. Resuscitation. 2017

Prophylactic hydration to protect renal function from intravascular iodinated contrast material in patients at high risk of contrast-induced nephropathy (AMACING): a prospective, randomised, phase 3, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority trial. Nijssen EC. Lancet. 2017

So today Rob and I were lucky enough to be asked to attend the Trauma Care Conference 2017, to listen to some of the great talks and catch up with some of the speakers for their take on the highlights of the talks.

We managed to catch the following speakers, here are the topics they covered and relevant links to the resources discussed.

Speakers

Gareth Davies, Consultant Emergency Medicine, Royal London Hospital; Understanding where, when and how people die?

Dave Gay, Consultant Radiologist, Derriford Hospital; The Role of Ultrasound in Trauma

Fiona Lecky, Professor Emergency Medicine, Salford; Traumatic Brain Injury: recent progress & future challenges

Simon Carley, Professor Emergency Medicine, Central Manchester; The Top 10 trauma papers of 2016

St Emlyn's Top 10 +1 Trauma Papers 2016

Tim Rainer,  Professor Emergency Medicine, Cardiff; Permissive hypotension in blunt trauma

David Raven, Emergency Medicine Consultant, Heart of England Foundation Trust; HECTOR & Elderly Trauma

The HECTOR Course (& free online manual!!)

Ross Fisher, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon Sheffield Children’s Hospital; TARN report for paediatrics

p3 presentations

TARNlet Database

Have a listen to the podcast and again huge thanks to the speakers for taking their time to share their superb talks with a wider audience.

Simon

Centralisation of care for specialist services such as stroke, trauma and myocardial infarctions is becoming more and more common place. But where will it stop and what does it mean for the specialty of Emergency Medicine?

In this episode we have a look at a recent pilot RCT published in the journal of Resuscitation looking at the feasibility of setting up an bigger RCT to evaluate moving prehospital patients to a cardiac arrest centre. The paper itself is a great piece of work but the bigger discussion around the topic is also a really important point to consider.

Have a listen to the podcast, see what you think and please post you comments on the site for us all to see.

Enjoy!

Simon

A Randomised tRial of Expedited transfer to a cardiac arrest centre for non-ST elevation ventricular fibrillation out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: The ARREST pilot randomised trial. Patterson T. Resuscitation. 2017

Welcome back to Papers of the Month. March has given us some great papers.

We kick off with a couple of papers looking at rib fractures, associated morbidity and mortality and also looks at management of flail segments.

We then turn our attention to airway management and look at a paper reviewing the outcomes associated with patients who are intubated during resuscitation from cardiac arrest.

As ever we would highly encourage you to go and read the papers yourselves, these are only our takes on the literature and we would love to hear your thoughts below.

Enjoy

Simon & Rob

Association Between Tracheal Intubation During Adult In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest and Survival. Andersen LW. JAMA. 2017

AIRWAYS-2

Think of rhabdomyolysis and you'll think of an elevated creatine kinase (CK). The condition ranges from an asymptomatic period to a life-threatening condition with a hugely associated rise in CK which can also be accompanied by electrolyte disturbance, renal failure and disseminated intravascular coagulation.

Rhabdomyolysis is caused by a breakdown in skeletal muscle and occurs most commonly following trauma, very often that can be due to a 'long-lie' when a patient is unable to get off a floor until help arrives after a prolonged period. There are other causes including drugs, muscle enzyme deficiencies, electrolyte abnormalities and more.

The presentation itself is pretty vague and suspicion of the disease needs to be pretty high. Patients can experience weakness, myalgia and the dark'coca-cola urine', the diagnosis is then confirmed with a serum elevation in CK.

The big concern with Rhabdomyolysis is the hit the kidneys take. Acute kidney injury is due to the heme pigment that is released from myoglobin and haemoglobin and is nephrotoxic. Early aggressive fluid rehydration aims to minimise ischaemic injury, increase urinary flow rates and thus limit intratubular cast formation. Fluids also help eliminate excess K+ that may be associated. But have a think about the management in your ED, how high does that CK need to be to require i.v. fluids and admission to hospital?

Here's a few facts we need to know:

• Normal CK enzyme levels are 45–260 U/l.
• CK rises in rhabdomyolysis within 12hours of the onset of muscle injury
• CK levels peak at 1–3 days, and declines 3–5 days after muscle injury
• The peak CK level may be predictive of the development of renal failure
• A CK level of 5000 U/l or greater is related to renal failure
• Optimal fluid rate administration is unclear, some papers suggest replacement of isotonic saline at rates of 1-2L per hour. , adjusted to 200-300mL per hour to maintain a diuresis.
• Attention needs to be paid to urine output serum markers and fluid status.

A lot of the evidence and knowledge surrounding rhabdomyolysis is from humanitarian disasters; earthquakes, terrorism along with observational cohorts, but at the end of the day we need to work with what we've got.

Have a listen to the podcast and see what you think, the application of the evidence base may change your practice.

Enjoy!

 References

Bench-to-bedside review: Rhabdomyolysis -- an overview for clinicians. Huerta-Alardín AL. Crit Care. 2005

Creatine kinase MB isoenzyme in dermatomyositis: a noncardiac source. Larca LJ. Ann Intern Med. 1981

Rhabdomyolysis: an evaluation of 475 hospitalized patients. Melli G. Medicine (Baltimore). 2005

Serum creatine kinase as predictor of clinical course in rhabdomyolysis: a 5-year intensive care survey. de Meijer AR. Intensive Care Med. 2003

Prevention and treatment of heme pigment-induced acute kidney injury (acute renal failure). Paul M Palevsky. UpToDate. 2015

Epistaxis is an extremely common presentation to both Prehospital Emergency Services and Emergency Departments. The vast majority are benign and self limiting but every once in a while a catastrophic bleed will come our way. 

Whilst not necessarily the most attention grabbing of topics a sound understanding of the management is key to excellent care.

In this podcast Rob talk us through the management of epistaxis, all the way from causes and presentation, right the way through to resuscitative management and latest evidenced based treatment.

Enjoy!

References & Further Reading

LITFL epistaxis review

Geeky medics epistaxis 

BMJ overview paper & management flowchart

Routine coagulation screening in the management of emergency admission for epistaxis; is it necessary? Thaha MA. J Laryngol Otol 2000

Front-line epistaxis management: let's not forget the basic. E C Ho. J Laryngol Otol 2008

Serious spontaneous epistaxis and hypertension in hospitalized patients.Page C. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2011

 Tranexamic acid in epistaxis: a systematic review. Kamhieh Y, et al. Clin Otolaryngol. 2016

Welcome back to Papers of the Month. February holds a diverse number of topics on some really interesting areas of practice.

We kick off with a snap shot systematic review from the Annals of Emergency Medicine on the effect of Amiodarone or Lignocaine on the outcome from refractory VF or VT arrests, are drugs losing more favour yet again in cardiac arrest.

Next up is a pilot study following the surgical theme of minimal intervention for appendicitis, can antibiotics safely be used in a particular cohort of patients to prevent the need for surgery? And moreover could this be even safer than the traditional surgical cure?

Last up we cover a paper looking at the survival from traumatic cardiac arrest and consider the bias that may occur by reporting those resuscitation attempts that are of limited duration in with the whole cohort; are we painting a overly negative picture of the prognosis of traumatic cardiac arrest?

As ever we would highly encourage you to go and read the papers yourselves, these are only our takes on the literature and we would love to hear your thoughts below.

Enjoy

Simon & Rob

References & Further Reading

In Patients With Cardiac Arrest, Does Amiodarone or Lidocaine Increase Meaningful Survival? Hunter BR. Ann Emerg Med

Antibiotics-First Versus Surgery for Appendicitis: A US Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial AllowingOutpatient Antibiotic Management. Talan DA. Ann Emerg Med. 2016 Dec

Resuscitation attempts and duration in traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Beck B. Resuscitation 2017 Feb

Those of us who are a bit longer in the tooth have spent most of our careers not scanning everyone who sustained a head injury on warfarin, but in 2104 NICE published guidance suggesting we do just that.

At times, with the huge burden we place on our radiology services, it is difficult not think we're over doing things with all of these scan requests, especially when the patient has no adverse symptoms or signs. Fortunately the AHEAD study has just been published which looks at thousands of patients presenting to ED's on warfarin with a head injury.

The paper is open access and deserves a full read, in this podcast I run through some of the main parts of the study and have a think about how it might impact on our practice.

This is just one part of the puzzle on the management of patients with anticoagulated head injuries, we had a look previously on what to do if you perform a scan and that appears normal in our Anticoagulation, Head Injury & Delayed Bleeds Podcast.

Hope you enjoy the podcast and we'd love to hear any of your feedback on social media or on the website.

Simon

A lot of our podcasts have focussed on prognostic factors in arrest to help with the decision making of continuing or stopping resuscitation in cardiac arrest. There would appear to be a huge variety in practice as to when resuscitation is ceased, and in that way having explicit guidance to unify practice can at times seem appealing.

In this episode we have a look at a recent paper covering the topic, it suggests a group of patients accounting for nearly half of cardiac arrests, that upon recognition could safely lead us to cease efforts.

Have a listen to the podcast and let us know what you think!

References

Early Identification of Patients With Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest With No Chance of Survival and Consideration for Organ Donation. Jabre P. Ann Intern Med. 2016

Resuscitation Council; Recognition of Life Extinct

Happy New Year!!!

The publishing world seems to have wound down a bit for the festive break, but 4 papers caught out eye that can add some further context to practice in the Resus Room.

Firstly we take a look at two papers looking at the conversion from non-shockable to shockable rhythms in cardiac arrest, both the likelihood and the associated prognosis.

Next up we have a look at a paper focussing on Cerebral Performance Categories (CPC's) and their reliability as an outcome for studies.

Lastly we have a look at the recent Cochrane Review on video laryngoscopy vs direct laryngoscopy for adult intubation.

Thanks again to our sponsors ADPRAC for supporting the podcast.

References & Further Reading

Age-specific differences in prognostic significance of rhythmconversion from initial non-shockable to shockable rhythm and subsequent shock delivery in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Funada A. Resuscitation. 2016

Conversion to shockable rhythms during resuscitation and survivalfor out-of hospital cardiac arrest. Wah W. Am J Emerg Med. 2016 

Inter-rater reliability of post-arrest cerebral performance category(CPC) scores. Grossestreuer AV. Resuscitation. 2016

Videolaryngoscopy versus direct laryngoscopy for adult patients requiring tracheal intubation. Lewis SR. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 

As the years tick by our healthcare systems work harder and harder to ensure that acute coronary syndromes are picked up as they present to our Emergency Departments, the evolution of high sensitivity troponins and their application have been key to this.

The utility of a test however is dependant upon it's application to the appropriate patient. In a heavily burdened system it can at times seem sensible to front load tests and 'add on a troponin' before we are even sure the history is consistent with a possible acute coronary syndrome. But is this a safe approach for our patients and what are the potential consequences?

In this podcast we run through a recent paper from the US on the topic. Whilst not the highest level of evidence and also looking at a system not entirely generalisable to the UK, it does highlight the aforementioned concerns and is a useful reminder to consider our approach to testing in patients with chest pain.

We are certainly not berating the use of troponin, we just think the paper serves a great reminder that testing must be appropriately applied.

Enjoy, and as ever we'd love to hear your feedback!

References

SIGN ACS Guidelines 2016

RCEMFOAMed SIGN ACS Guidelines

Causes of Elevated Cardiac Troponins in the Emergency Department and Their Associated Mortality. Meigher S. Acad Emerg Med. 2016

Cardiac Troponin: The basics from St. Emlyn’s

Rick Body via St Emlyns; One high sensitivity troponin test to rule out acute myocardial infarction

So my talk at the ICS SOA 2016 conference on whether ED should be allowed to intubate certainly provoked some discussion, which was fortunate as it was the purpose of the talk!

If you haven't listened to it yet, stop listening to this and have a listen to the talk here first.

In this quick debrief between Rob and myself we have a think about the feedback and where to go from here.

We'd love to hear any feedback in the comments section at the webpage at www.TheResusRoom.co.uk

Simon

RSI delivered by EM clinicians is common place throughout the globe, in the UK however it still seems a contentious topic, with recent data showing only 20% of ED RSIs being performed by EM clinicians.

I was lucky enough to be asked to talk at the ICS SoA 2016 conference on the topic of EM doctors carrying out RSI's in the UK and this podcast is a copy of that talk.

I hope it provides some context both to UK practitioners and also to those from other countries, who may not understand what the big deal is all about.

Simon

References

A randomized controlled trial on the effect of educational interventions in promoting airway management skill maintenance.Randomized controlled trial. Kovacs G, et al. Ann Emerg Med. 2000

Acute airway management in the emergency department by non-anesthesiologists. Review article. Kovacs G, et al. Can J Anaesth. 2004

Achieving house staff competence in emergency airway management: results of a teaching program using a computerized patient simulator. Mayo PH, et al. Crit Care Med. 2004

The who, where, and what of rapid sequence intubation: prospective observational study of emergency RSI outside the operating theatre. Reid C, et al. Emerg Med J. 2004

Rapid sequence induction of anaesthesia in UK emergency departments: a national census. Benger J, et al. Emerg Med J. 2011.

Tracheal intubation in an urban emergency department in Scotland: a prospective, observational study of 3738 intubations. Kerslake D, et al. Resuscitation. 2015

Systematic review and meta-analysis of first-pass success rates in emergency department intubation: Creating a benchmark for emergency airway care. Park L, et al. Emerg Med Australas. 2016

Scottish Intensive Care Society: RSI

Difficult Airway Society Guidelines

RCOA Anaesthesia in the Emergency Department Guidelines; Chapter 6.1

John Hinds on RSI at RCEM 2015 Belfast

Draft; AAGBI Guidelines: Safer pre-hospital anaesthesia 2016

AAGBI Pre-hospital Anaesthesia Guideline 2009

Welcome to December's Papers of the month where we'll be looking at the papers recently published that have caught our eye.

First up, what happens when clinicians override clinical decision rules for PE? Are we better than the the rules?

Next we have a look at a review article that runs through the back ground literature on subsegmental PE's, their diagnosis and management.

And finally we have a look at a paper that helps to benchmark ED airway management with regards first pass success rate.

Our sponsors ADPRAC are giving away another £30 iTunes voucher to spend on education/entertainment to support your work life balance! All you need to do is click the link on our home page through to the ADPRAC website and answer the question relating to the podcast, good luck!

References & Further Reading

Yield of CT Pulmonary Angiography in the Emergency Department When Providers Override Evidence-based Clinical Decision Support. Yan Z. Radiology. 2016

Best Clinical Practice: Current Controversies in Pulmonary Embolism Imaging and Treatment of Subsegmental Thromboembolic Disease. Long B. J Emerg Med. 2016

Systematic review and meta-analysis of first-pass success rates in emergency department intubation: Creating a benchmark for emergency airway care. Park L. Emerg Med Australas. 2016

Patients frequently present to the Emergency Department either with direct concern following an upper gastro intestinal bleed, or with a history that points towards the diagnosis.

When these patients are haemodynamically unstable or with ongoing high volume bleeding the decision to admit or discharge becomes simple.

But when the episode has settled, deciding whether they are safe to be discharged and continue with outpatient follow up can be difficult. Lots of us use scoring systems such as the Glasgow-Batchford Score or the Rockall Score but how much do we actually understand regarding the 'positive' and 'negative' outcomes of those scores?

A recent paper on the topic helps to cast some light on the topic and forms the basis of this podcast.

One of the frequently used scoring systems is the Glasgow-Blatchford score below that bases it's score upon historical, physiological and laboratory findings.

mdcalc GBS scoring calculator

Probably the other most frequently used score in ED is the Rockall score, which in its full form utilises endoscopy findings, however for use in the ED (pre-endoscopy) it has been modified and utilised.

mdcalc pre-endoscopy Rockall Score

Have a listen to how these scores fare in the paper and it may inform your risk stratification in the ED.

Enjoy!

The Predictive Value of Pre-Endoscopic Risk Scores to Predict Adverse Outcomes in Emergency Department Patients with Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding - A Systematic Review. Ramaekers R. Acad Emerg Med. 2016

Upper Gastro Intestinal Bleeding at St.Emlyn’s

It's never long before the topic of pulmonary embolism makes it back into the controversial lime light and a recent paper on the association of PE with syncope is the lastest reason.

The PESIT trial, just published in the New England Journal of Medicine certainly grabs your attention when you read the abstract, with the implication that PE's are a major and hugely missed cause of the presentation of syncope. It also highlights a diagnostic work up that consists of blanket Well's scoring +/- d-dimer to decide who should be worked up further for the potential diagnosis, for every single patient presenting with syncope, including those with no appropriate symptoms or signs!

As always to read the abstract and draw a conclusion is to fall at the first hurdle, so take a listen to the podcast as we dive a bit deeper into the paper and topic, and of course make sure you take a look at the paper yourself and see what you make of the headline grabbing article

Enjoy!

Prevalence of Pulmonary Embolism among Patients Hospitalized for Syncope. Prandoni P. N Engl J Med. 2016

Incidence of asymptomatic pulmonary embolism in moderately to severely injured trauma patients. Schultz DJ.J Trauma. 2004 Apr 

Prospective evaluation of unsuspected pulmonary embolism on contrast enhanced multidetector CT (MDCT) scanning. Ritchie G. Thorax. 2007 Jun.

EM Nerd-The Case of the Incidental Bystander

JC: Prevalence of PE in patients with syncope. St.Emlyn’s

This month the literature seems to be focussed on cardiac arrest

In this podcast we'll cover a paper looking at the significance of chest compression rate, ultrasound for prognostication (and to a lesser extent identification of tamponade) and finally a systematic review and meta-analysis of PCI following ROSC.

The PCI paper follows on nicely from our previous podcast on the topic, so make sure you have a listen to that one first.

Our sponsors ADPRAC are giving away another £30 iTunes voucher to spend on education/entertainment to support your work life balance! All you need to do is click the link on our home page through to the ADPRAC website and answer the question relating to the podcast, good luck!

References & Further Reading

Association between chest compression rates and clinical outcomes following in-hospital cardiac arrest at an academic tertiary hospital. Kilgannon JH. Resuscitation. 2016 

Emergency department point-of-care ultrasound in out-of-hospital and in-ED cardiac arrest. Gaspari R. Resuscitation. 2016 

Emergency department point-of-care ultrasound in out-of-hospital and in-ED cardiac arrest. Gaspari R. Resuscitation 2016

EM Nerd-The Case of the Tell-Tale Heart

JC: Is this the REASON to use USS in cardiac arrest? St.Emlyn’s

Stroke thrombolysis has definitely put the spotlight back on to the topic of stroke over the last few years. Stroke thrombolysis has led to restructuring of stroke care in the UK and has helped drive investment in stroke care.

The evidence base that underpins thrombolysis has been controversial to say the least and can be difficult to comprehend.

Review article: Why is there still a debate regarding the safety and efficacy of intravenous thrombolysis in the management of presumed acute ischaemic stroke? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Donaldson L. Emerg Med Australas. 2016 Aug 25

The article, published in the the Emergency Medicine Australasia Journal is a great place to start to get to grips with the topic.

In the podcast we run through the paper and hopefully this will shed act as a good recap on the topic and lead you to delve into the primary literature and form your own opinion.

Enjoy!

References

Review article: Why is there still a debate regarding the safety and efficacy of intravenous thrombolysis in the management of presumed acute ischaemic stroke? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Donaldson L. Emerg Med Australas. 2016 Aug 25

Royal College of Physicians; National clinical guideline for stroke, Prepared by the Intercollegiate Stroke Working Party, Fifth Edition 2016 (accredited by NICE)

Risk assessment, testing and risk management form the very heart of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care.

Being aware of the evidence surrounding a topic is key to delivering high level care but without an understanding of the underpinning concepts it's application is extremely limited.

Understanding how a test result changes a patient's likelihood of a disease can be described with likelihood ratios, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has a podcast explaining likelihood ratios in more detail.

But when a test result comes back on the boundary between positive and negative, or at the extremes of positive we can find it difficult to know what this means and that's where interval likelihood ratios comes into play. 

Examples include a minimally elevated WCC in a suspected appendicitis, or a dramatically raised d-dimer as compared to a borderline positive result in a suspected pulmonary embolus, this podcast talks through some of those concepts and their application, enjoy!

References

Evidence-based emergency medicine/skills for evidence-based emergency care. Interval likelihood ratios: another advantage for the evidence-based diagnostician. Brown MD. Ann Emerg Med. 2003

Pulmonary embolism: making sense of the diagnostic evaluation. Wolfe TR. Ann Emerg Med. 2001

Diagnostic accuracy of conventional or age adjusted D-dimer cut-off values in older patients with suspected venous thromboembolism: systematic review and meta-analysis. Schouten HJ. BMJ. 2013