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.
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
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
Pulmonary embolism: making sense of the diagnostic evaluation. Wolfe TR. Ann Emerg Med. 2001
This month we cover a paper looking at the role of early craniectomy for raised intracranial pressure, the outcomes associated with advanced airway managements in prehospital cardiac arrest and lastly at the utility on ETCO2 and consider if it's application decreases adverse respiratory events.
This month our great sponsors ADPRAC our giving away a £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 and Links
Capnography for procedural sedation in the ED: a systematic review. Dewdney C, Emerg Med J. 2016