The Resus Room

'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. En

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

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 manu

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 (I

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 rand

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 Defining shock in adults Significance of shock What shock looks like A recap of cardiac physiology Causes of shock Ultrasound evaluation Fluid therapy Inotropes and vasopressors As always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, we look

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 yo

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. Simon, Rob & James References Pediatric golf cart trauma: Not par for the course. Tracy BM. J Pediatr Surg. 2018 What to eat and drink in the festive season: a pan-European, observational, cross-sectional study. Parker HL, et al. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2017. Work of Breathing into Snow in the Presence versus Absence of an Artificial Air Pocket Affects Hypoxia and Hypercapnia of a Victim Covered with Avalanche Snow: A Randomized Double Blind Crossover Study. Karel Roubík. PLoS One. 2015.

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! Simon, Rob & James References London Trauma Conference AIRWAYS-2; podcast SPIKES Protocol LITFL; Killer ECG Patterns Beyondprognostication: ambulancepersonnel's livedexperiencesof cardiacarrestdecision-making. Anderson NE. Emerg Med J.2018 Zero Talent Battle

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 Ian G. Stiell, Catherine M. Clement, Maureen Lowe, Connor Sheehan, Jacqueline Miller, Sherry Armstrong, Brenda Bailey, Kerry Posselwhite, Jannick Langlais, Karin Rud

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

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: Dr Abi Hoyle – a paediatric emergency medicine consultant with a background in military and retrieval services. She gave us some key tips when dealing with paediatric patients. Ian Dunbar – a technical and medical rescue consultant with years of experience in the UK Fire and Rescue Service and ongoing involvement with British Touring Car Championship and the FIA. He did some myth busting around extrication from vehicles. Professor Mike Tipton – a leading figure in extreme physiology who is the Associate Head of Research at the Extreme Environments Laboratory in Portsmouth, is trustee/director of Surf Life Saving GB

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 R

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 Medic

With bonfire night approaching we thought it would be a good time to have a think about burns. However burns are a significant issue at all times of year with around 130,000 presentations to UK EDs annually, 10,000 cases are admitted to hospital, 500 of these have severe burns and 200 of these will die. But most importantly intervention that we make can make a big difference to both morbidity and mortality, really affecting outcomes.  Throughout this episode we'll be covering the essential first responder management, all the way through to the critical care that maybe required for the sickest of burns patients.  In the podcast we cover Burn type and burn severity The importance of history Assessing burn extent Assessing burn depth The A-E assessment and specifics regarding the burns patient NAI, antibiotics, tetanus cover, analgesia, special circumstances eyes & chemicals Conveyance and destination As always we'd love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter

Welcome back to October's Papers Podcast, this month we move airway from advanced airway management and bring you a broad array of papers. First up we have a look at the relative success of a variety of pharmacological strategies for managing the acutely agitated patient in ED. Next up we have look at the well know CURB-65 score and it's ability to predict the need for critical care interventions. Lastly, we may all feel at times that performing a CT head on those well patients solely because they take anticoagulants may be a little on the excessive side, we review a paper that looks at the yield of positive scans in this cohort. As ever don't just take our word for it, go and have a look at the papers yourself, we would love to hear any comments or feedback you have. Enjoy! Simon & Rob References & Further Reading  IntramuscularMidazolam, Olanzapine, Ziprasidone, or Haloperidolfor TreatingAcuteAgitationin the Emergency Department. Klein LR. Ann Emerg Med. 2018 Performanceof the CURB-65Scorein Predict

So we're back with September's papers of the month a little later than usual but we wanted to give you a little time to digest AIRWAYS-2... before we give you some more prehospital research on advanced airway management in cardiac arrest! The American version of AIRWAYS-2, PART, has just been released in JAMA, looking at the laryngeal tube versus endotracheal intubation as a primary strategy for advanced airway management. The paper is fascinating accompaniment to AIRWAYS-2. Next we have a look at a paper assessing Emergency Medicine clinicians' ability to predict hospital admission at the time of triage, should we be making early calls on the destination of our patients? Finally we have a look at the potential role of esmolol in cases of refractory VF and a paper that reports twice the survival rates in those that receive it! As always we strongly suggest you have a look at the papers yourself and come to your own conclusions. Make sure you check out the hyperlinked blogs below that we mention in the podcast

So we're back from our summer hiatus with a real treat. The long awaited AIRWAYS-2 paper has just been released and we've been lucky enough to speak with the lead author, Professor Jonathan Benger, about the paper and discuss what the findings mean for cardiac arrest management. AIRWAYS-2 looks at the initial advanced airway management strategy for paramedics attending out of hospital cardiac arrests, essentially whether or not the aim should be to place a supraglottic airway device or an endotracheal tube when advancing from simple airway techniques. The study was a huge undertaking with many speculating over how the results would change practice, including discussion of how it may affect paramedic's practice of intubation, all of which we cover in the podcast. Before you listen to the podcast make sure you have a look at the paper yourself, have a listen to PHEMCAST's previous episode which covers the study design and have a look at the infographics on the website which summarise the primary outcome and sec

Welcome to August's papers of the month. So this is our last offering for the summer until whilst we take a short break until September, so we had to finish off we 3 great papers! First up we look at the drug of the moment (or decade...) in tranexamic acid and the effect that it has on outcomes in primary intracerebral haemorrhage. Next, what role does point of care ultrasound (POCUS) hold in the patient presenting with undifferentiated shock? We look at a randomised control trial of POCUS in this patient cohort that assesses the ability to translate POCUS into a mortality benefit. Finally we look at a delphi study published in the EMJ which explores expert opinion upon multiple aspects of paediatric traumatic arrests. The results are fascinating and may inform some of the CRM used in the next case you see. As always we strongly suggest you have a look at the papers yourself and come to your own conclusions. Make sure you check out the hyperlinked blogs below that we mention in the podcast that contain some f