The Resus Room

So the three of us are back together and going to take on Sepsis! It's vital to have a sound understanding of sepsis. It has a huge morbidity and mortality but importantly there is so much that we can do both prehospital and in hospital to improve patient outcomes. In the podcast we cover the following; Definitions Scale of problem Different bodies; NICE/Sepsis Trust/3rd international consensus definition including qSOFA Handover and pre alerts Treatment; Sepsis 6 The evidence base behind treatment Contentious areas Prehospital abx Fever control Steroids ETCO2 We hope the podcast helps refresh your knowledge on the topic and brings about some clarity on some contentious points. As always don't just take our word for it, go and have a look at the primary literature referenced below. Enjoy! Simon, Rob & James References & Further Reading Duration of hypotension before initiation of effective antimicrobial therapy is the critical determinant of survival in human septic shock. Kumar. Critical Care Medicine. 2006 Prognostic value of timing of antibiotic administration in patientswith septic shock treated with early quantitative resuscitation. Ryoo SM. Am J Med Sci. 2015 The association between time to antibiotics and relevant clinicaloutcomes in emergency department patients with various stages of sepsis: a prospective multi-center study. de Groot B. Crit Care. 2015 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 The prognostic value of blood lactate levels relative to that of vitalsigns in the pre-hospital setting: a pilot study. Jansen TC Crit Care. 2008 Lactate clearance vs central venous oxygen saturation as goals of early sepsis therapy: a randomized clinical trial. Jones AE. JAMA. 2010 Lower versus higher hemoglobin threshold for transfusion in septic shock. Holst LB. N Engl J Med. 2014 A randomized trial of protocol-based care for early septic shock. ProCESS Investigators. N Engl J Med. 2014 Trial of early, goal-directed resuscitation for septic shock. Mouncey PR. N Engl J Med. 2015 Goal-directed resuscitation for patients with early septic shock. ARISE Investigators. N Engl J Med. 2014 Acetaminophen for Fever in Critically Ill Patients with SuspectedInfection. Young P. N Engl J Med. 2015 NICE; Sepsis: recognition, diagnosis and early management The Sepsis Trust The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3). Singer M. JAMA. 2016 NHS E; Improving outcomes for patients with sepsis. A cross-system action plan Prehospital antibiotics in the ambulance for sepsis: a multicentre, open label, randomised trial. Alam N. Lancet Respir Med. 2018 Adjunctive Glucocorticoid Therapy in Patients with Septic Shock. Venkatesh B. N Engl J Med. 2018 PHEMCAST; End Tidal Carbon Dioxide Current clinical controversies in the management of sepsis. Cohen J. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2016 St Emlyns; qSOFA RCEM; Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Clinical Audit 2016/2017 National report RCEM & UK Sepsis Trust; Toolkit: Emergency Department management of Sepsis in adults and young people over 12 years- 2016

On a not infrequent basis we will come across patients in hospital who have a CT head scan that appears to show an unsurvivable event. Having sourced opinion from our neurosurgical and neurology colleagues we may well be given the advice to withdraw care for the patient. It has become increasingly recognised that prognosticating in such patients at an early stage is extremely difficult with numerous cases surviving what was initially thought to be an unsurvivable event, with a good neurological outcome. This joint document from the Intensive Care Society, Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Neuro Anaesthesia and Critical Care Society of Great Britain & Ireland and the Welsh Intensive Care Society gives new guidance for such perceived devastating brain injuries and will challenge many peoples thinking on the topic with additional questions being asked on resource utilisation. In this podcast Caroline Leech, EM and PHEM Consultant in Coventry, discusses the guidelines and the implications they hold for our practice. As always make sure you read the document yourself, we would love to hear your thoughts. Enjoy! Simon & Caroline References Management of Perceived Devastating Brain Injury After Hospital Admission; A consensus statement A case for stopping the early withdrawal of life sustainingtherapies in patients with devastating brain injuries. Manara AR. J Intensive Care Soc. 2016

Welcome back, we've got 3 absolute beauties of papers for you this month! You'll have struggled not to have heard about the ADRENAL trial, a trial of iv steroids in the sickest of patients with septic shock. We also have a look at a trial that many have been quoting as sound evidence for the utility of pH during the prognostication of patients in cardiac arrest. Finally we have a look at a paper that may shed some concern on the use of Double Sequential Defibrillation that we covered recently on the podcast... We'd love to hear from you with any thoughts or feedback you have on the podcast. And we've now launched of Critical Appraisal Lowdown course, so if you want to gain some more skills in critical appraisal make sure you go and check out our online course here. Enjoy! Simon & Rob References & Further Reading TheBottomLine; ADRENAL St Emlyns; ADRENAL Adjunctive Glucocorticoid Therapy in Patients with Septic Shock. Venkatesh B. N Engl J Med. 2018 External Defibrillator Damage Associated With Attempted Synchronized Dual-Dose Cardioversion. Gerstein NS. Ann Emerg Med. 2018 Initial blood pH during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients: a multicenter observational registry-based study. Shin J. Crit Care. 2017

In this episode we cover a paper that you have to know about! The use of tranexamic acid(or TXA) has become widespread in the case of major trauma and post partum haemorrhage. This time we discuss a recent paper that asks us if giving it within 3 hours is enough, or whether we need to be even more specific regarding its urgency of administration in order to save lives from bleeding. There is a superb podcast over at our buddies site PHEMCAST which covers an interview with one of the authors and we'd highly recommend listening to that! Enjoy! Simon & Rob References Effect of treatment delay on the effectiveness and safety of antifibrinolytics in acute severe haemorrhage: a meta-analysis of individual patient-level data from 40 138 bleeding patients. Gayet-Ageron A. Lancet. 2017

Prehospital Care is evolving rapidly and is one of the most exciting and dynamic specialties to be involved with at the moment. As a reflection of it's progress the Faculty of Pre Hospital Care held its first scientific conference this week. We were lucky enough to be invited by Caroline Leech, EM & PHEM Consultant and the person responsible for organising this superb event, to interview some of the superb speakers at the event. Here are the speakers we were lucky enough to catch up with and the topics they discuss Matt Thomas – Hyperoxia: when oxygen is harmful Jo Manson – The hyperacute inflammatory response to trauma Rob Moss – FPHC Consensus Statement - Spinal Malcolm Russell – FPHC Consensus Statemnent – External Haemorrhage Tim Nutbeam – Pre-hospital research: what do we not know? David Menzies – Impact brain apnoea & motorsport Stacey Webster – Calcium in pre-hospital blood transfusion: the missing link Rod Mackenzie Injury prevention, control & recovery A huge thanks to all involved in the conference for having us at the conference and we hope to see you all next year! Simon, Rob & James References and links FPHC Consensus statement guidelines Ionised calcium levels in major trauma patients who received blood in the Emergency Department. Webster S. Emerg Med J. 2016 TOP-ART

Happy New Year!! Welcome back to the podcast and what we hope will be a superb year. We've got three excellent papers that are extremely relevant to our practice and will have an impact on practice. First up it's a paper looking at the benefit of iv versus oral paracetamol in the Emergency Department, something we do really frequently but what does the evidence say? Next we have a look at the difference that topical TXA could make to epistaxis in terms of bleeding cessation. Lastly we look at a systematic review looking at adenosine versus calcium channel blockers for SVT. Very soon we'll be releasing our Critical Appraisal Lowdown course, so keep an eye out for that. And finally a huge thanks to our sponsors ADPRAC for all of the support with TheResusRoom. Enjoy! Simon & Rob

Handover matters. Handover of patient care occurs at multiple points in the patient's journey and is a crucial point for transference of information and inter professional working. Whether it's the big trauma in Resus with the prehospital services presenting to the big crowd, right the way through to the patient coming to minors who looks like they will be going home shorty, each of these transactions of information needs to be done correctly. Handover can be stressful though and different parties will have different priorities that they are trying to juggle. In this podcast we explore handover, some of the barriers and issues that exist. We have a look at the evidence that exists on it's importance, impact and associated techniques. We also look at tools that exist that can be used to facilitate effective handover. As ever make sure you look at the articles mentioned in the podcast yourself and we would love to hear your thoughts. Enjoy! Simon, Rob & James References & Further Reading Information loss in emergency medical services handover of trauma patients. Carter AJ. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2009 Maintaining eye contact: how to communicate at handover. Dean E. Emerg Nurse. 2012 The handover process and triage of ambulance-borne patients: the experiences of emergency nurses. Bruce K. Nurs Crit Care. 2005 Handover from paramedics: observations and emergency department clinician perceptions. Yong G. Emerg Med Australas. 2008 Review article: Improving the hospital clinical handover between paramedics and emergencydepartment staff in the deteriorating patient. Dawson S. Emerg Med Australas. 2013

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 cardiac arrest that has gained a ROSC, if the ECG is not diagnostic of a STEMI but the history is suggestive of a cardiac event, should the patient go straight to the cathlab for PCI? As always don't just take our word for it but go and have a look at the papers yourself and we would love to hear your thoughts. Enjoy! Simon & Rob References & Further Reading A Multicenter, Randomized Trial of Ramped Position vs Sniffing Position During Endotracheal Intubation of Critically Ill Adults. Semler MW. Chest. 2017 A Multicenter Randomized Trial of a Checklist for Endotracheal Intubation of Critically Ill Adults. Janz DR. Chest. 2017 Early coronary angiography in patients resuscitated from out of hospital cardiac arrest without ST-segment elevation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Khan MS. Resuscitation. 2017 JC: Should non ST elevation ROSC patients go to cath lab? St.Emlyn's CHECK-UP Checklist; The Bottom Line

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 look at the ERC Guidelines on traumatic cardiac arrest which we refer to. Enjoy! Simon, Rob & James References & Further Reading Resuscitation to Recovery Document Roadside to Resus; Cardiac Arrest ERC Guidelines; Traumatic Arrest Traumatic cardiac arrest: who are the survivors? Lockey D. Ann Emerg Med. 2006 Conversion to shockable rhythms during resuscitation and survival for out-of hospital cardiac arrest. Wah W. Am J Emerg Med. 2017 Resuscitation attempts and duration in traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Beck B. Resuscitation 2017. An evidence-based approach to patient selection for emergency department thoracotomy: A practice management guideline from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. Seamon MJ. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2015 EAST guidelines 2015; ED Thoracotomy FAST ultrasound examination as a predictor of outcomes after resuscitative thoracotomy: a prospective evaluation. Inaba K. Ann Surg. 2015

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 References & Further Reading 2014 ESC Guidelines on the diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism British Thoracic Society guidelines for the management of suspected acute pulmonary embolism; 2003 Antithrombotic Therapy for VTE Disease CHEST Guideline and Expert Panel Report; 2016 Management of Massive and Submassive Pulmonary Embolism, Iliofemoral Deep Vein Thrombosis, and Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension. A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. 2011 Venous thromboembolic diseases: diagnosis, management and thrombophilia testing; NICE. 2012 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1438862/pdf/jrsocmed00257-0051.pdfValue of anticoagulants in the treatment of pulmonary embolism: a discussion paper. Paul Egermayer. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 1981. Anticoagulant drugs in the treatment of pulmonary embolism. A controlled trial. BARRITT DW. Lancet. 1960 Treatment of pulmonary embolism in total hip replacement. Johnson R. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1977 PAIMS 2: alteplase combined with heparin versus heparin in the treatment of acute pulmonary embolism. Plasminogen activator Italian multicenter study 2. Dalla-Volta S. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1992 Alteplase versus heparin in acute pulmonary embolism: randomised trial assessing right-ventricular function and pulmonary perfusion. Goldhaber SZ. Lancet. 1993 Thrombolysis Compared With Heparin for the Initial Treatment of Pulmonary Embolism. A Meta-Analysis of the Randomized Controlled Trials. Susan Wan. 2004 Massive PE and cardiogenic shock. To thrombolyse or not to thrombolyse, that is the question. Francoise Ticehurst. BestBets. 2004