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