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 ...
Dec 01, 2017•28 min
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 ...
Nov 20, 2017•45 min
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 Ref...
Nov 10, 2017•26 min
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...
Nov 01, 2017•25 min
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...
Oct 16, 2017•54 min
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; Prehos...
Oct 06, 2017•35 min
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 feed...
Oct 01, 2017•31 min
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...
Sep 21, 2017•1 hr 14 min
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 t...
Sep 11, 2017•17 min
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 tha...
Sep 01, 2017•26 min
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 (3...
Aug 21, 2017•24 min
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 trea...
Aug 14, 2017•30 min
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 De...
Aug 01, 2017•29 min
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 proble...
Jul 20, 2017•40 min
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. In this episode we discuss the complexities of balancing the risks and harms when trying to provide a patient centred approach, rather than a "one-size fits all" model. As always, there ar...
Jul 10, 2017•33 min
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 criti...
Jul 01, 2017•24 min
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. I...
Jun 21, 2017•27 min
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 ben...
Jun 15, 2017•21 min
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 ...
Jun 01, 2017•28 min
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 o...
May 19, 2017•22 min
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...
May 15, 2017•40 min
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...
May 01, 2017•25 min
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....
Apr 25, 2017•25 min
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 Brita...
Apr 15, 2017•19 min
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 ...
Apr 01, 2017•32 min
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, De...
Mar 18, 2017•42 min
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 di...
Mar 08, 2017•19 min
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 ...
Mar 01, 2017•30 min
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 ...
Feb 21, 2017•12 min
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 ma...
Feb 15, 2017•23 min
