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;
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;
As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter.
Enjoy!
References
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
As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter.
Enjoy!
References
RCEMLearning; RCEM Belfast Vertigo
Acute Stroke Lecture notes; 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
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;
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;
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!
References
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.
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
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!
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
EMCrit; Vent and Prevent, an update
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.
References
Pediatric golf cart trauma: Not par for the course. Tracy BM. J Pediatr Surg. 2018
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!
References
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
SGEM#232: I Can See Clearly Now the Collar is Gone – Thanks to the Triage Nurse
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!
References
Pre-hospital Obstetric Emergency Training; POET
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
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:
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!
References
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