Category Archives: PHARM

Prehospital and Retrieval Medicine

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Simple emergency haemorrhage control

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I had the honour of attending trauma rounds with leading South African trauma surgeons today at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. This was the first day of an intense week-long trauma education tour that I have organised for myself and three of my Sydney HEMS colleagues.
A technique for haemorrhage control in penetrating trauma is to place a Foley catheter (FC) in the wound and inflate the balloon to try to achieve compression of bleeding vascular structures. This has been life-saving in many cases and buys time to get the patient to a trauma or vascular surgeon or in some cases an interventional radiologist.

Catheter is knotted (black arrow) to occlude lumen. The wound is sutured around the catheter (white arrow).

First described by Gilroy and colleagues from Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg1, another, larger case series was subsequently reported by Cape Town’s Navsaria2, the Professor who conducted today’s trauma round I attended. In his paper he describes:


An 18- or 20-G FC was introduced into the bleeding neck wound. An attempt was made to follow the wound tract. The balloon was inflated with 5 ml of water or until resistance was felt. The FC was either clamped or knotted on itself to prevent bleeding through the lumen. The neck wound was sutured in two layers around the catheter. Continued bleeding around the catheter was an indication to proceed to surgery.

There were no deaths attributable to the use of FC balloon tamponade.
Prof. Navsaria describes the following algorithm for the subsequent investigation and management of these patients:

 I’ve been teaching this technique as an option in penetrating trauma for a few years but have never actually done it for real. Nice to finally see examples of its successful implementation by people who do this all the time. I’ve seen four patients with Foleys sticking out of their necks in the first 24 hours of being here.
1. Control of life-threatening haemorrhage from the neck: a new indication for balloon tamponade.
Injury. 1992;23(8):557-9
[EXPAND Click to read abstract]


We report the use of a Foley catheter, placed through the wound, to provide balloon tamponade of major bleeding from the neck and supraclavicular fossae. In 10 consecutive explorations for exsanguinating injury in these regions balloon tamponade was used eight times, and was judged to be fully effective in four patients, partly effective in one, and ineffective in three patients.

[/EXPAND]
2. Foley catheter balloon tamponade for life-threatening hemorrhage in penetrating neck trauma
World J Surg. 2006 Jul;30(7):1265-8
[EXPAND Click to read abstract]


BACKGROUND: Foley catheter (FC) balloon tamponade is a well-recognized technique employed to arrest hemorrhage from penetrating wounds. The aim of this study was to review our experience with this technique in penetrating neck wounds and to propose a management algorithm for patients with successful FC tamponade.

METHODS: A retrospective chart review (July 2004-June 2005 inclusive) was performed of patients identified from a prospectively collected penetrating neck injury computer database in whom FC balloon tamponade was used. The units’ policy for penetrating neck injuries is one of selective nonoperative management. All patients with successful FC tamponade underwent angiography. A venous injury was diagnosed if angiography was normal. Ancillary tests were performed as indicated. Removal of the FC was performed in the OR.

RESULTS: During the study period, 220 patients with penetrating neck injuries were admitted to our unit. Foley catheter balloon tamponade was used in 18 patients and was successful in 17 patients. Angiography was positive in 3 patients, all of whom underwent surgery. The FC was successfully removed in 13 patients at a mean of 72 (range 48-96) hours. One patient bled after removal of the catheter, mandating emergency surgery.

CONCLUSION: Foley catheter balloon tamponade remains a useful adjunct in the management of selective patients with penetrating, bleeding neck wounds.

[/EXPAND]

All Updates, PHARM, Trauma

Body temperature in anaesthetised HEMS patients

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This study raises an important issue – how do we keep patients with major trauma warm on the way to hospital? The authors from HEMS London identified mean temperatures in hospital of 35°C in patients who had been anaesthetised in the field, although only 38% of their patients had a temperature recorded on admission!
I emailed the author Audun Langhelle for practical information on the thermal protection package they use, who was most helpful in supplying the following information. Clicking on the link will take you to online supplements to the paper describing and illustrating their technique of prehospital rewarming.

Hi Cliff,

Thank you for your request and interest in our paper. Now fully repatriated to Norway, we’re currently using the medium sized UniqueResc warming blanket (Geratherm, Germany) at my base, together with the bubble wrap. In Norway, Garatherm is the only company which has been able to provide us with the necessary paper work showing that their product complies with the rather strict pan European rules and regulations, the EN 13718-1: Requirements for medical devices used in air ambulances in particular.
Working as HEMS doc with LAA 2008-2009, we played with and introduced the policy using Diemme’s (Italy)DM EMG >> http://emj.bmj.com/content/early/2010/10/19/emj.2009.086967/suppl/DC1, but I’m not sure what blanket they currently use.

Kind regards,

Audun

We reviewed this article in one of our Sydney HEMS Clinical Governance Days last year. One of our team presented a critical appraisal and if you’re interested the deadly PowerPoint slides are here:

Body temperature of trauma patients on admission to hospital

View more presentations from nswhems.


Background Hypothermia at hospital admission has been found to independently predict increased mortality in trauma patients.

Objectives To establish if patients anaesthetised in the prehospital phase of care had a higher rate of hypothermia than non-anaesthetised patients on admission to hospital.

Methods Retrospective review of admission body temperature in 1292 consecutive prehospital trauma patients attended by a physician-led prehospital trauma service admitted to The Royal London Hospital between 1 July 2005 and 31 December 2008.

Results 38% had a temperature recorded on admission. There was a significant difference in body temperature between the anaesthetised group (N=207) and the non-anaesthetised group (N=287): mean (SD) 35.0 (2.1) vs 36.2 (1.0)°C, respectively (p <0.001). No significant seasonal body temperature variation was demonstrated.
Conclusion This study confirmed that patients anaesthetised in the prehospital phase of care had a significantly lower admission body temperature. This has led to a change in the author’s prehospital practice. Anaesthetised patients are now actively surface heated and have whole body insulation to prevent further heat loss in an attempt to conserve body temperature and improve outcome. This is an example of best in-hospital anaesthetic practice being carried out in the prehospital phase.

Body temperature of trauma patients on admission to hospital: a comparison of anaesthetised and non-anaesthetised patients
Emerg Med J. 2012 Mar;29(3):239-42
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Acute Med, All Updates, Guidelines, PHARM, Resus

Epinephrine in cardiac arrest reanalysed

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A post hoc reanalysis was performed on a 2009 JAMA paper comparing patients randomised to receive or not receive prehospital drugs and iv access for cardiac arrest.
This was done to evaulate the effect of adrenaline/epinephrine. The reason for the reanalysis was that in the original intention-to-treat analysis, some of the following issues may have influenced the results:

  • Some patients randomised to adrenaline never received it as they had ROSC before the drug could be given, thus yielding a selection bias with the most easily resuscitated patients in the post hoc no-adrenaline group
  • At least 1 of 5 patients randomised to receive IV access and drugs did not receive adrenaline as it was regarded futile or it was impossible to gain intravenous access
  • 1 of 10 patients randomised to not receive drugs received adrenaline after they had regained spontaneous circulation for > 5 min.

The purpose of this post hoc analysis on the RCT data was to compare outcomes for patients actually receiving adrenaline to those not receiving adrenaline.
The actual use of adrenaline was associated with increased short-term survival, but with 48% less survival to hospital discharge. The improved survival to hospital admission is consistent with the results of a recent Australia study, and the negative association with longer term survival is similar to a multivariate analysis of observational Swedish registry data where patients receiving adrenaline were 57% less likely to be alive after one month.
Yet more evidence that we haven’t found any drugs proven to improve survival in cardiac arrest. At least not until the human studies on sodium nitroprusside come out?
I bet some of you are still going to be giving the epi exactly every four minutes though.
**Update: see Prehospital Epinephrine Use and Survival Among Patients With Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest – more prospective data from Japan, this time showing epinephrine improves prehospital ROSC, but decreases chance of survival and good functional outcomes 1 month after the event.**


PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: IV line insertion and drugs did not affect long-term survival in an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) randomized clinical trial (RCT). In a previous large registry study adrenaline was negatively associated with survival from OHCA. The present post hoc analysis on the RCT data compares outcomes for patients actually receiving adrenaline to those not receiving adrenaline.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: : Patients from a RCT performed May 2003 to April 2008 were included. Three patients from the original intention-to-treat analysis were excluded due to insufficient documentation of adrenaline administration. Quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and clinical outcomes were compared.

RESULTS: Clinical characteristics were similar and CPR quality comparable and within guideline recommendations for 367 patients receiving adrenaline and 481 patients not receiving adrenaline. Odds ratio (OR) for being admitted to hospital, being discharged from hospital and surviving with favourable neurological outcome for the adrenaline vs. no-adrenaline group was 2.5 (CI 1.9, 3.4), 0.5 (CI 0.3, 0.8) and 0.4 (CI 0.2, 0.7), respectively. Ventricular fibrillation, response interval, witnessed arrest, gender, age and endotracheal intubation were confounders in multivariate logistic regression analysis. OR for survival for adrenaline vs. no-adrenaline adjusted for confounders was 0.52 (95% CI: 0.29, 0.92).

CONCLUSION: Receiving adrenaline was associated with improved short-term survival, but decreased survival to hospital discharge and survival with favourable neurological outcome after OHCA. This post hoc survival analysis is in contrast to the previous intention-to-treat analysis of the same data, but agrees with previous non-randomized registry data. This shows limitations of non-randomized or non-intention-to-treat analyses.

Outcome when adrenaline (epinephrine) was actually given vs. not given – post hoc analysis of a randomized clinical trial
Resuscitation. 2012 Mar;83(3):327-32

Acute Med, All Updates, PHARM

Prehospital IM midazolam for seizures

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Intramuscular midazolam is at least as safe and effective as intravenous lorazepam for the prehospital management of status epilepticus. In his blog EM Literature of Note, Dr Ryan Radecki looks forward to a similar trial comparing nasal midazolam, which would reduce the risk from injections. Read his full critique here. Buccal midazolam 0.5 mg/kg is of course also an option, as described in the Advanced Paediatric Life Support manual:
If using the buccal route, draw up the higher dose (0.5mg) of the IV preparation using a needle (to avoid any fragments of glass from the ampoule) and after removing the needle, inject the drug into the buccal area between the lower bottom lip and the gum margin at the side of the mouth. Buccal midazolam is twice as effective as rectal diazepam, but both drugs produce the same level and degree of respiratory depression.


BACKGROUND: Early termination of prolonged seizures with intravenous administration of benzodiazepines improves outcomes. For faster and more reliable administration, paramedics increasingly use an intramuscular route.

METHODS: This double-blind, randomized, noninferiority trial compared the efficacy of intramuscular midazolam with that of intravenous lorazepam for children and adults in status epilepticus treated by paramedics. Subjects whose convulsions had persisted for more than 5 minutes and who were still convulsing after paramedics arrived were given the study medication by either intramuscular autoinjector or intravenous infusion. The primary outcome was absence of seizures at the time of arrival in the emergency department without the need for rescue therapy. Secondary outcomes included endotracheal intubation, recurrent seizures, and timing of treatment relative to the cessation of convulsive seizures. This trial tested the hypothesis that intramuscular midazolam was noninferior to intravenous lorazepam by a margin of 10 percentage points.

RESULTS: At the time of arrival in the emergency department, seizures were absent without rescue therapy in 329 of 448 subjects (73.4%) in the intramuscular-midazolam group and in 282 of 445 (63.4%) in the intravenous-lorazepam group (absolute difference, 10 percentage points; 95% confidence interval, 4.0 to 16.1; P<0.001 for both noninferiority and superiority). The two treatment groups were similar with respect to need for endotracheal intubation (14.1% of subjects with intramuscular midazolam and 14.4% with intravenous lorazepam) and recurrence of seizures (11.4% and 10.6%, respectively). Among subjects whose seizures ceased before arrival in the emergency department, the median times to active treatment were 1.2 minutes in the intramuscular-midazolam group and 4.8 minutes in the intravenous-lorazepam group, with corresponding median times from active treatment to cessation of convulsions of 3.3 minutes and 1.6 minutes. Adverse-event rates were similar in the two groups.
CONCLUSIONS: For subjects in status epilepticus, intramuscular midazolam is at least as safe and effective as intravenous lorazepam for prehospital seizure cessation. (Funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00809146.).

Intramuscular versus Intravenous Therapy for Prehospital Status Epilepticus
N Engl J Med. 2012 Feb 16;366(7):591-600

Acute Med, All Updates, PHARM

Enoxaparin beats heparin for PCI

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This is of interest to those of us in retrieval medicine, for logistic reasons: an infusion of heparin can be an unnecessary hassle during transport, especially if a subcutaneous injection prior to retrieval is a satisfactory alternative. This systematic review and meta-analysis shows enoxaparin appears to be superior to unfractionated heparin in reducing mortality and bleeding outcomes during percutaneous coronary intervention. This applies particularly to patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST elevation myocardial infarction


OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy and safety of enoxaparin compared with unfractionated heparin during percutaneous coronary intervention.

DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

DATA SOURCES: Medline and Cochrane database of systematic reviews, January 1996 to May 2011.

STUDY SELECTION: Randomised and non-randomised studies comparing enoxaparin with unfractionated heparin during percutaneous coronary intervention and reporting on both mortality (efficacy end point) and major bleeding (safety end point) outcomes.

DATA EXTRACTION: Sample size, characteristics, and outcomes, extracted independently and analysed.

DATA SYNTHESIS: 23 trials representing 30 966 patients were identified, including 10 243 patients (33.1%) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST elevation myocardial infarction, 8750 (28.2%) undergoing secondary percutaneous coronary intervention after fibrinolysis, and 11 973 (38.7%) with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome or stable patients scheduled for percutaneous coronary intervention. A total of 13 943 patients (45.0%) received enoxaparin and 17 023 (55.0%) unfractionated heparin. Enoxaparin was associated with significant reductions in death (relative risk 0.66, 95% confidence interval 0.57 to 0.76; P<0.001), the composite of death or myocardial infarction (0.68, 0.57 to 0.81; P<0.001), and complications of myocardial infarction (0.75, 0.6 to 0.85; P<0.001), and a reduction in incidence of major bleeding (0.80, 0.68 to 0.95; P=0.009). In patients who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention, the reduction in death (0.52, 0.42 to 0.64; P<0.001) was particularly significant and associated with a reduction in major bleeding (0.72, 0.56 to 0.93; P=0.01).
CONCLUSION: Enoxaparin seems to be superior to unfractionated heparin in reducing mortality and bleeding outcomes during percutaneous coronary intervention and particularly in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST elevation myocardial infarction.

Efficacy and safety of enoxaparin versus unfractionated heparin during percutaneous coronary intervention: systematic review and meta-analysis
BMJ. 2012 Feb 3;344:e553

All Updates, PHARM, Resus

The REAL Shocked Patient

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I promised to put some summary notes on the site for those who attended my talk on ‘The REAL Shocked Patient’ for the Australian College of Ambulance Professionals on Tuesday 21st February 2012, so here they are:

Shocked patients are important – they comprise most of the ‘talk and die’ caseload that preoccupies pub conversations between emergency physicians
It’s easy to mistake these patients as less sick than, say, hypoxic ones, but oxygen delivery to the tissues doesn’t just depend on oxygen!

Here’s a dead wombat – someone in the audience knew a worrying amount about wombat anuses.

The 4 Hs and 4 Ts aren’t a very cognitively practical mnemonic for the causes of PEA arrest (which is an extreme form of hypotension)

I prefer the ‘3 plus 3’ rule, which breaks down the causes into three – volume, pump, and obstruction. Obstruction is further broken down into three causes, being tension pneumothorax, cardiac tamponade, and pulmonary embolism:

Let’s look at some cases of shock caused by volume deficit, pump falure, or one of the three causes of obstruction to the circulation:
 
Case 1: The hypotensive motorcyclist
His low back pain suggested pelvic fracture
Think of ‘blood on the floor and four more’ (chest, abdomen, pelvis/retroperitoneum, long bones) and consider non-bleeding causes such as neurogenic (spinal injury), tension pneumothorax, cardiac tamponade, and finally medical causes/iatrogenic (drug) causes.
Don’t underestimate the importance of pelvis and limb splinting as a haemorrhage control technique in blunt trauma
Ultrasound in flight made thoracic or abdominal bleeding very unlikely, and ruled out tamponade and pneumothorax
Although he was hypotensive, no fluids were given, as he was mentating normally and peripherally well perfused, with a radial pulse. If we gave fluid, we would titrate to the presence of a radial pulse (in blunt trauma) but we don’t want to ‘pop the clot’ by elevating the BP, or make him less able to form effective clots by diluting his blood with crystalloid.
Mortality in trauma sharply rises with systolic BP below 105-110, so recalibrate your definition of hypotension in terms of when you might be concerned, and which patients may benefit from triage to a trauma centre.
 
Case 2: The child crushed by a wall
Caution regarding lower limb infusions in patients with abdominal / pelvic injuries – the fluid may not get to the heart.

The classification of shock into four classes is crap. Never let the absence of a tachycardia reassure you.


Intraosseous is awesome, and EZ-IO has the best track record by far.
 
Case 3: The boy stabbed in the upper thigh
In penetrating limb trauma, prehospital options include pressure, elevation, tourniquet, and haemostatic dressings. Foley catheters have been used successfully in transition zones such as the neck or groin.
 
Case 4: Haematemesis
Should we apply the same principles of permissive hypotension to patients with ‘medical’ bleeding?
The Trendelenburg position doesn’t make a lot of sense – no need to head down the patient, although the act of elevating the legs may ‘autoinfuse’ a bolus of blood to the core circulation, and is recommended by some bodies as a first aid manoeuvre for hypotensive patients in the field prior to iv fluids.
 
Case 5: The overdose patient with a low blood pressure but otherwise fine.
When don’t I Worry about hypotension? When the patient is:

  • With it
  • Warm peripherally
  • Weeing
  • and (in hospital) Without a raised lactate


Case 6: Two cases of pump failure: STEMI and complete heart block
Adrenaline infusions can be simply made with a 1mg 1:10000 minijet diluted in a litre of saline and dripped through a peripheral line titrated to BP / HR / mentation / pulses.
In complete heart block (or other bradycardias) with hypotension, percussion pacing is an option of you don’t have access to transcutaneous or transvenous pacing. If you get capture, it’s as effective in terms of stroke volume as a pacing wire.
 
Case 7: Obstructive shock – tamponade cases
…with resolution of hypotension after drainage by emergency physicians who identified the tamponade on ultrasound, even though they didn’t suspect it clinically. It can be a surprise!
 
Case 8: Obstructive shock – tension pneumothorax
Patients are often agitated and won’t lie flat. They may complain of ‘tight’ breathing. Crackles and/or wheezes may be heard. The classic description of deviated trachea, absent breath sounds, and hyperresonance are the exception, not the rule. Be suspicious and always palpate for subcutaneous emphysema.
Don’t assume a needle decompression will work – there is debate about the best site but in some adults a standard needle won’t reach the pleural space. If you need to place more than one needle, go for it. As physicians, we do thoracostomies to ensure we’ve hit the spot.
 
Case 9: Obstructive shock – pulmonary embolism
A tough one prehospital, as the hypotensive ones need fibrinolysis. Fluid may help the hypotension but too much can overdistend the right ventricle which can then impair left ventricular filling, and worsen the patient’s circulatory state. Once again, ultrasound may be invaluable in highlighting PE as a possible cause for shock.
 
Case 10: Penetrating trauma to the ‘box’ – chest and upper abdomen.
If these patients arrest due to tamponade, early (< 10 minutes) clamshell thoracotomy can be life saving, which means it may need to be done pre-hospital by a HEMS physician to provide a chance of survival. Be on the look out for these and if in doubt activate a medical team (in New South Wales). Like with tension pneumothorax, these patients may be extremely agitated as a manifestation of their shock.
 
Case 11: Confused elderly male with pyrexia and smelly urine who appears ostensibly ‘normotensive’
…but how many 82 year olds do you know with a BP of 110/57? His acute confusion may be a manifestation of shock and he needs aggressive evaluation in hospital including a lactate measurement. Don’t be afraid to give this guy fluids in the field – you can make a big difference here.
Here are five of the myths I promised to expose:

So…shocked patients can talk and die. Don’t let that happen. Shocked patients can be normotensive, and hypotensive patients might not be shocked. Have a plan for how you might evaluate the 3+3 causes in your setting and what you can use from your medication and equipment list to manage volume, pump, and obstruction issues. You will save many lives if you become a serious shock detective.

All Updates, PHARM

Utstein-like template for physician EMS

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Many European and Australasian emergency medical services deploy physicians to the scene. In order to facilitate consistent data reporting and future collaborative research, a working group produced a recommended reporting template. The group consisted of ‘sixteen European experts in the field of pre-hospital care’, and the nine authors of the study were seven Scandinavians, one Italian and one Brit.

Prehospital Care Doctors
They established an Utstein-like template for documenting and reporting in physician-staffed pre-hospital services. The core data set consists of 45 variables grouped in five different categories: “fixed system variables”, “event operational descriptors”, ” patient descriptors”, “process mapping”, and “outcome measures and quality indicators”.

A consensus-based template for documenting and reporting in physician-staffed pre-hospital services
Andreas J Kruger, David Lockey, Jouni Kurola, Stefano Di Bartolomeo, Maaret Castren, Soren Mikkelsen, Hans Morten Lossius
Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine 2011, 19:71 Full Text
Full text PDF

All Updates, PHARM, Resus, Trauma

Another reason to be skeptical about collars

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More evidence that the obsession with cervical collars is founded on dogma rather than science


Background All trauma patients with a cervical spinal column injury or with a mechanism of injury with the potential to cause cervical spinal injury should be immobilised until a spinal injury is excluded. Immobilisation of the entire patient with a rigid cervical collar, backboard, head blocks with tape or straps is recommended by the Advanced Trauma Life Support guidelines. However there is insufficient evidence to support these guidelines.

Objective To analyse the effects on the range of motion of the addition of a rigid collar to head blocks strapped on a backboard.

Method The active range of motion of the cervical spine was determined by computerised digital dual inclinometry, in 10 healthy volunteers with a rigid collar, head blocks strapped on a padded spine board and a combination of both. Maximal opening of the mouth with all types of immobiliser in place was also measured.

Results The addition of a rigid collar to head blocks strapped on a spine board did not result in extra immobilisation of the cervical spine. Opening of the mouth was significantly reduced in patients with a rigid collar.

Conclusion Based on this proof of principle study and other previous evidence of adverse effects of rigid collars, the addition of a rigid collar to head blocks is considered unnecessary and potentially dangerous. Therefore the use of this combination of cervical spine immobilisers must be reconsidered.

Value of a rigid collar in addition to head blocks: a proof of principle study.
Emerg Med J. 2012 Feb;29(2):104-7

All Updates, PHARM, Resus, Trauma

Prehospital thoracostomy tube misplacement

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An interesting study from Germany examined prehospital thoracostomy tube (TT) placement by physicians working in the field. Of 69 patients who received them, 67 underwent prehospital intubation. 88 TT were placed in the 69 patients.
There were 19/88 (22%) radiologic chest tube misplacements (defined as too far in the chest, twisted, or bent). The position of 10/88 (11%) chest tubes had to be corrected. None of the patients with a TT had a “not-decompressed” pneumothorax or a chest tube placed below the diaphragm or into a solid organ.
Roughly half were placed in the ‘Monaldi’ position (the second or third intercostal space in the midclavicular line)…..

Monaldi position

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
…..and half in the Bülau position (fourth or fifth intercostal space in the midaxillary line).
Bülau position

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
There was no difference in the misplacement rates between the two positions although interestingly helicopter doctors (as opposed to ground response) more often opted for the Monaldi position.
It is not possible to tell from the results whether the TT insertion was indicated in all cases. Also, it would be interesting to know whether TT insertion preceded or followed tracheal intubation. While it is heartening that these physicians do not routinely rely on needle decompression, I cannot fathom while simple open thoracostomy was not used, avoiding the risk of tube misplacement and saving time.
See this post for a more thorough review of open thoracostomy and the limitations of needle decompression.


Objectives. To evaluate the frequency of use, placement site, success and misplacement rates, and need for intervention for tube thoracostomies (TTs), and the complications with endotracheal intubation associated with TT in the prehospital setting.

Methods. We performed a five-year, retrospective study using the records of 1,065 patients who were admitted to the trauma emergency room at a university hospital and who had received chest radiographs or computed tomography (CT) scans within 30 minutes after admission.

Results. Seven percent of all patients received a TT (5% unilateral, 2% bilateral). Ninety-seven percent of all patients with a TT were endotracheally intubated. The success rate for correctly placed chest tubes was 78%. Twenty-two percent of the chest tubes were misplaced (i.e., too far in the chest, twisted, or bent); half of those had to be corrected, with one needing to be replaced. There were no statistical differences in the frequency of Monaldi or Bülau positions, or the frequency of left or right chest TT. In addition, the two positions did not differ in misplacement rates or the need for intervention. Helicopter emergency medical services physicians used the Monaldi position significantly more frequently than the Bülau position. In-hospital physicians performing interhospital transfer used the Bülau position significantly more frequently, whereas ground emergency medical physicians had a more balanced relationship between the two positions. Tube thoracostomy had no influence on endotracheal tube misplacement rates, and vice versa.

Conclusion. Tube thoracostomy positioning mostly depends on the discretion of the physician on scene. The Monaldi and Bülau positions do not differ in misplacement or complication rates.

Incidence And Outcome Of Tube Thoracostomy Positioning In Trauma Patients
Prehosp Emerg Care. 2011 Oct 3. [Epub ahead of print]

Acute Med, All Updates, PHARM, Resus, Ultrasound

Prehospital echo predicts arrest outcome

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In hospital, the detection of cardiac standstill with ultrasound predicts a fatal outcome from cardiac arrest with a high degree of accuracy. A similar finding has been made in the prehospital setting. Interestingly, it was a better predictor than other commonly recognised factors associated with outcome: the presence of asystole, down time, bystander CPR, or end-tidal CO2 levels.


Introduction. The prognostic value of emergency echocardiography (EE) in the management of cardiac arrest patients has previously been studied in an in-hospital setting. These studies mainly included patients who underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by emergency medicine technicians at the scene and who arrived at the emergency department (ED) still in a state of cardiac arrest. In most European countries, cardiac arrest patients are normally treated by physician-staffed emergency medical services (EMS) teams on scene. Transportation to the ED while undergoing CPR is uncommon. Objective. To evaluate the ability of EE to predict outcome in cardiac arrest patients when it is performed by ultrasound-inexperienced emergency physicians on scene.

Methods. We performed a prospective, observational study of nonconsecutive, nontrauma, adult cardiac arrest patients who were treated by physician-staffed urban EMS teams on scene. Participating emergency physicians (EPs) received a two-hour course in EE during CPR. After initial procedures were accomplished, EE was performed during a rhythm and pulse check. A single subxiphoid, four-chamber view was required for study enrollment. We defined sonographic evidence of cardiac kinetic activity as any detected motion of the myocardium, ranging from visible ventricular fibrillation to coordinated ventricular contractions. The CPR had to be continued for at least 15 minutes after the initial echocardiography. No clinical decisions were made based on the results of EE.

Results. Forty-two patients were enrolled in the study. The heart could be visualized successfully in all patients. Five (11.9%) patients survived to hospital admission. Of the 32 patients who had cardiac standstill on initial EE, only one (3.1%) survived to hospital admission, whereas four out of 10 (40%) patients with cardiac movement on initial EE survived to hospital admission (p = 0.008). Neither asystole on initial electrocardiogram nor peak capnography value, age, bystander CPR, or downtime was a significant predictor of survival. Only cardiac movement was associated with survival, and cardiac standstill at any time during CPR resulted in a positive predictive value of 97.1% for death at the scene.

Conclusion. Our results support the idea of focused echocardiography as an additional criterion in the evaluation of outcome in CPR patients and demonstrate its feasibility in the prehospital setting.

Cardiac Movement Identified on Prehospital Echocardiography Predicts Outcome
Prehosp Emerg Care. 2012 Jan 11. [Epub ahead of print]