Complications following attempted rapid sequence intubation.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J Hulme.
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Managing the airway of a critically injured trauma patient in the prehospital environment is challenging, especially when access to the patient's airway is limited as is often the case in vehicle entrapment incidents. This paper reports the use of the laryngeal mask airway as an adjunct to airway management when attempts using simple airway management techniques have failed to provide adequate oxygenation and ventilation and limited access to the patient precluded endotracheal intubation.
A 45-year-old alcoholic man presented following several short grand-mal seizures. He was not known to be epileptic. Initial investigations demonstrated a severe lactic acidosis. The rise in lactate was one of the highest levels reported in similar patients. The patient recovered within 4 h of management with oxygen, fluids and sodium bicarbonate. Lactic acidosis following convulsions is often associated with spontaneous resolution and a favourable outcome.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy of a peer-led tuition model for training healthcare students in basic life support compared to tuition delivered by clinical tutors. DESIGN AND SETTING: Randomised controlled trial in the Medical School, University of Birmingham, UK. PARTICIPANTS: 122 first-year medical, dental, nursing and physiotherapy students. INTERVENTIONS: Students were randomised to receive basic life support tuition from either second-year student instructors or from experienced clinical staff. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Students' practical skills, knowledge and satisfaction were tested at the end of the course. Instructor reliability was assessed throughout the course. Students taught by their peers were significantly more likely to be successful in the end-of-course practical CPR test than those taught by clinical staff (56/57 vs. 53/62). The student instructors were also found to be more reliable than clinical staff at attending the training sessions (48/48 vs. 36/48). There was no significant difference in the theoretical test results or the students' assessment of the quality of teaching. CONCLUSIONS: This model of peer-led undergraduate training in basic life support provides a quality of education which is at least as good as that provided by clinical staff, while offering advantages in terms of reliability. The re-deployment of clinical tutors from basic to more advanced training may allow the overall enhancement of undergraduate resuscitation and critical care training.
BACKGROUND: As the focus for osteoarthritis (OA) treatment shifts away from drug therapy, we consider the effectiveness of pulsed electric stimulation which is proven to stimulate cartilage growth on the cellular level. OBJECTIVES: 1)To assess the effectiveness of pulsed electric stimulation for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA). 2) To assess the most effective and efficient method of applying an electromagnetic field, through pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF) or electric stimulation, as well as the consideration of length of treatment, dosage, and the frequency of the applications. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched PREMEDLINE, MEDLINE, HealthSTAR, CINAHL, PEDro, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CCTR) up to and including 2001. This included searches through the coordinating offices of the trials registries of the Cochrane Field of Physical and Related Therapies and the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group for further published and unpublished articles. The electronic search was complemented by hand searches and experts in the area. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomized controlled trials and controlled clinical trials that compared PEMF or direct electric stimulation against placebo in patients with OA. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two reviewers determined the studies to be included in the review based on inclusion and exclusion criteria (JH,VR) and extracted the data using pre-developed extraction forms for the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group. The methodological quality of the trials was assessed by the same reviewers using a validated scale (Jadad 1996). Osteoarthritis outcome measures were extracted from the publications according to OMERACT guidelines (Bellamy 1997) and additional secondary outcomes considered. MAIN RESULTS: Only three studies with a total of 259 OA patients were included in the review. Electrical stimulation therapy had a small to moderate effect on outcomes for knee OA, all statistically significant with clinical benefit ranging from 13-23% greater with active treatment than with placebo. Only 2 outcomes for cervical OA were significantly different with PEMF treatment and no clinical benefit can be reported with changes of 12% or less. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: Current evidence suggests that electrical stimulation therapy may provide significant improvements for knee OA, but further studies are required to confirm whether the statistically significant results shown in these trials confer to important benefits.
The number of short 'life support' and emergency care courses available are increasing. Variability in examiner assessments has been reported previously in more traditional types of examinations but there is little data on the reliability of the assessments used on these newer courses. This study evaluated the reliability and consistency of instructor marking for the Resuscitation Council UK Advanced Life Support Course. Twenty five instructors from 15 centres throughout the UK were shown four staged video recorded defibrillation tests (one repeated) and three cardiac arrest simulation tests in order to assess inter-observer and intra-observer variability. These tests form part of the final assessment of competence on an Advanced Life Support course. Significant levels of variability were demonstrated between instructors with poor levels of agreement of 52-80% for defibrillation tests and 52-100% for cardiac arrest simulation tests. There was evidence of differences in the observation/recognition of errors and rating tendencies of instructors. Four instructors made a different pass/fail decision when shown defibrillation test 2 for a second time leading to only moderate levels of intra-observer agreement (kappa=0.43). In conclusion there is significant variability between instructors in the assessment of advanced life support skills, which may undermine the present assessment mechanisms for the advanced life support course. Validation of the assessment tools for the rapidly growing number of life support courses is required with urgent steps to improve reliability where required.
This paper describes a novel method for delivering basic life support training to undergraduate healthcare students. A comprehensive 8 h programme is organised and delivered by undergraduate students to their peers. These students have undergone training as basic life support instructors validated by the Royal Life Saving Society UK. The course is delivered to multiprofessional groups of medical, dental, physiotherapy, biomaterial and nursing undergraduates. It has been well received by students and academic staff and provides a solution to reduce the workload of over burdened clinical staff while at the same time enhancing quality. It forms part of an overall strategy for improving resuscitation training for undergraduates from all disciplines.
This randomized-controlled study examined the effects of foot massage on patients' perception of care received following surgery. The sample of 59 women who underwent laparoscopic sterilization as day case patients were randomly allocated into two groups. The experimental group received a foot massage and analgesia post-operatively, whilst the control group received only analgesia post-operatively. Each participant was asked to complete a questionnaire on the day following surgery. This examined satisfaction, memory and analgesia taken. The 76% response rate was comparable with other patient satisfaction studies following day-case surgery. Statistical analysis showed no overall significant difference in the pain experienced by the two groups; however, the mean pain scores recorded following surgery showed a significantly different pattern over time, such that the experimental group consistently reported less pain following a foot massage than the control group. This study has attempted to explore the use of foot massage in a systematic way and is therefore a basis for further study.
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An oil painting of a blind old English soldier done by James Ramsay in 1830 allows for some interesting thoughts about the use of symbolism in art and about the nature of blindness.
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