The Resus Room

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 arrest affects outcomes. Finally we have a look at a paper on management of PEs in cardiac arrest which draws some very interesting conclusions on the management of such cases and the associated outcomes! Please make sure you go and have a look at the papers yourself and as ever huge thanks to our sponsors ADPRAC for making this all possible. Enjoy! Simon & Rob References & Further Reading Effect of early tranexamic acid administration on mortality, hysterectomy, and other morbidities in women with post-partum haemorrhage (WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. WOMAN Trial Collaborators.Lancet 2017 Does transport time of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients matter? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Geri G. Resuscitation 2017  Pulmonary embolism related sudden cardiac arrest admitted alive at hospital: Management and outcomes. Bougouin W. Resuscitation. 2017 The Woman Trial; The Bottom Line

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 old ground here, this is an area we're all involved with day in and day out that is simple to correct and affects mortality Historically oxygen has been given without prescription; 42% of patients in the 2015 BTS audit had no accompanying prescription When it is prescribed this doesn't always correlate with delivery 1/3 of patients were outside of target SpO2 range (10% below & 22% above) If nothing else is taken from this document then reinforcement of the fact that we need to keep oxygen saturations normal/near normal for all patients, except groups at risk of type II respiratory failure Prescribe and delivery oxygen by target oxygen saturations What is normal? Normal Oxygen saturations for healthy young adults is approximately 96-98%, there is minor decrease with increasing age. Healthy subjects desaturate to 90% SpO2 during night time; be cautious interpreting a single oximetry reading from a sleeping patient, short duration overnight dips are normal   Will mental status give me an early indication of hypoxaemia? No, impaired mental function at a mean value of SaO2 64%, no evidence above SaO2 84% Loss of consciousness at a mean SaO2 56%   Aims of oxygen therapy Correct potentially harmful hypoxia Alleviate breathlessness only in those hypoxic   Why the fuss about hyperoxia? Hyperoxia has been shown to be associated with Risk to COPD patients and those at risk of type II respiratory failure Increased CK level in STEMI and increased infarct size on MR scan at 3 months Association of hyperoxaemia with increased mortality in several ITU studies Worsens systolic myocardial performance Absorption Atelectasis even at FIO2 30-50% Intrapulmonary shunting Post-operative hypoxaemia Coronary vasoconstriction Increased Systemic Vascular Resistance Reduced Cardiac Index Possible reperfusion injury post MI In patients with COPD studies have showed most hypercapnia patients arriving at hospital with the equivalent of SpO2 > 92% were acidotic, high concentration O2has been associated with more than double the mortality rate in those with acute exacerbations of COPD. Titrate O2 delivery down smoothly   Which patients are at risk of CO2 retention and acidosis if given high dose oxygen? Chronic hypoxic lung disease COPD/CF/Bronchiectasis Chest wall disease Kyphoscoliosis Thoracoplasty Neuromuscular disease Morbid obesity with hypo ventilatory syndrome   What is the oxygen target? Oxygen titrated to an SpO2 of 94-98% Except in those at risk of hypercapnia respiratory failure, then 88-92%(or specific SpO2 on patient's alert card)   What about in Palliative Care? Most breathlessness in cancer patients is caused by airflow obstruction, infections or pleural effusions and in these cases the issues need to be addressed. Oxygen does relieve breathlessness in hyperaemic cancer patients but not if SpO2 >90%. Midazolam and morphine also relieve breathlessness and are more likely to be effective.   Delivery Devices Reservior masks can deliver O2 concentrations between 60-80% Nasal cannualae at 1-6L/min can deliver 24-50% Venturi masks allow accurate delivery of O2 If tachypnoeic over 30 breaths per minute an increase over the marked flow rate should be delivered, note this won't increase the FiO2! Equivalent doses of O2 24% venturi = 1L O2 28 % venturi = 2L O2 35% venturi = 4L O2 40% venturi = nasal/facemask 5-6LO2 60% venturi = 7-10L simple face mask   Approach to oxygen delivery Firstly determine if at risk of type II respiratory failure If not; SpO2 < 94%, deliver oxygen Perform an ABG If high PCO2 consider invasive ventilation, in the interim aim SpO2 94-98% If PCO2 normal or low aim SpO2 94-98% and repeat ABG in 30-60 minutes If at risk of type II respiratory failure Obtain ABG if hypoxic or already on oxygen If a respiratory acidosis consider NIV, address medical condition and senior review. Treat with the lowest FiO2 via venturi or nasal specs to maintain an SpO2 88-92% If hypercapnia but not acidotic, titrate the lowest FiO2 via venturi or nasal specs to maintain an SpO2 88-92%. Repeat ABG after change of treatment/deterioration. Consider reducing FiO2 if PO2 on ABG >8kPa If PCO2 < 6 (normal or low) aim to keep SpO2 94-98% and repeat the ABG in 30-60 minutes Points specific to prehospital oxygen use A sudden reduction in 3% of SpO2 within the target range should prompt a fuller assessment of the patient Pulse oximetry must be available in all locations in which oxygen is being used Some patients over the age of 70 when clinically stable may have SpO2 between 92-94%, these patients don't require O2 therapy unless the SpO2 falls below the level that is known to be normal for that individual Patients with COPD should initially be given oxygen via 24% venturi at 2-4L/min or 28% mask at a flow rate 4L/min, or nasal cannulae at 1-2L/min aiming for 88-92% Patients over 50 years of age and long term smoker with a history of SOB on exertion and no other cause for their breathlessness should be treated as having COPD. Limit O2 driven nebs, if no air driven nebs available, to 6 minutes in duration in patients known to have COPD In summary.... So the bottom line? Well just like Goldielock's porridge, with oxygen we don't want too little, we don't want too much but we want just the right amount! There is no doubt that hypoxia kills but beware that too much of anything is bad for you and in the same way we need to be vigilant to targeting oxygen delivery to our patients target SpO2   References BTS Guideline for oxygen use in healthcare and emergency settings  

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 practice. Our previous podcast on troponins acts as a good introduction to this episode. Have a listen to both and we'd love to hear your comments at the bottom of the page and we hope you found this as useful as we did! Enjoy Simon References   Rapid Rule-out of Acute Myocardial Infarction With a Single High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin TMeasurement Below the Limit of Detection: A Collaborative Meta-analysis. Pickering JW. Ann Intern Med. 2017  Effect of Using the HEART Score in Patients With Chest Pain in the Emergency Department: A Stepped-Wedge, Cluster Randomized Trial. Poldervaart JM. Ann Intern Med. 2017 Comparison of the Efficacy and Safety of Early Rule-Out Pathways for Acute Myocardial Infarction. Chapman AR. Circulation. 2017

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 love to hear your feedback. Enjoy! Simon & Rob References & Further Reading Accuracy of point-of-care focused echocardiography in predicting outcome of resuscitation in cardiac arrest patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Tsou PY. Resuscitation. 2017 Usefulness of laboratory and radiological investigations in the management of supraventricular tachycardia. Ashok A. Emerg Med Australas.2017 What do emergency physicians in charge do? A qualitative observational study. Hosking I. Emerg Med J. 2017   

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: 10.1016/j.injury.2015.11.045. [Epub ahead of print] (more in February'sPapers of the month) Platelet transfusion versus standard care after acute stroke due to spontaneous cerebral haemorrhage associated with antiplatelet therapy (PATCH): a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial. Baharoglu MI. Lancet.2016 May 9. pii: S0140-6736(16)30392-0. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30392-0. [Epub ahead of print] (more in July's Papers of the month) Causes of Elevated Cardiac Troponins in the Emergency Department and Their Associated Mortality. Meigher S. Acad Emerg Med. 2016 (more in our Troponins podcast) Propofol or Ketofol for Procedural Sedation and Analgesia in Emergency Medicine-The POKER Study: A Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial. Ferguson I, et al. Ann Emerg Med. 2016. (more in September's Paper's of the month) Prevalence of Pulmonary Embolism among Patients Hospitalized for Syncope. Prandoni P. N Engl J Med. 2016 (more in our podcast PE The Controversy) Association Between Tracheal Intubation During Adult In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest and Survival. Andersen LW. JAMA. 2017 (more in March's Papers of the month) Review article: Why is there still a debate regarding the safety and efficacy of intravenous thrombolysis in the management of presumed acute ischaemic stroke? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Donaldson L. Emerg Med Australas. 2016 Aug 25 (more in our Stroke Thrombolysis podcast) Prophylactic hydration to protect renal function from intravascular iodinated contrast material in patients at high risk of contrast-induced nephropathy (AMACING): a prospective, randomised, phase 3, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority trial. Nijssen EC. Lancet. 2017 (more in April's Papers podcast) Immediate total-body CT scanning versus conventional imaging and selective CT scanning in patients with severe trauma (REACT-2): a randomised controlled trial. Sierink JC. Lancet. 2016 Jun 28 (more in August's Papers podcast) Accuracy of point-of-care focused echocardiography in predicting outcome of resuscitation in cardiac arrest patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Tsou PY. Resuscitation. 2017  (more coming up in May's Papers podcast!) Enjoy and we'll be back with our papers of the month next week! Simon  

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 Britain and Ireland & the Royal College of Surgeons. We then concentrate on a recent systematic review of the diagnostic work up for Acute Cholecystitis. Yet again the evidence base brings up some issues to challenge our traditional teaching on the topic but should help polish our management of patients with a differential of Acute Cholecystitis. Enjoy! References & Further Reading Commissioning Guide Gallstone disease 2016 Up to date; Acute Cholecystitis NICE guidance; Acute Cholecystitis History, Physical Examination, Laboratory Testing, and Emergency Department Ultrasonography for the Diagnosis of Acute Cholecystitis. Jain A. Acad Emerg Med

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 check out the podcast episode from PHEMCAST on the RePHILL trial with Jim Hancox. Finally I was lucky enough to catch up with Johannes von Vopelius-Feldt, the lead author of a paper in press on the impact of prehospital critical care teams on out of hospital cardiac arrests. You can find the fantastic opportunity of a scholarship to be an Emergency Nurse Practitioner here from ADPRAC. Enjoy Simon & Rob References & Further Reading Prophylactic hydration to protect renal function from intravascular iodinated contrast material in patients at high risk of contrast-induced nephropathy (AMACING): a prospective, randomised, phase 3, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority trial. Nijssen EC. Lancet. 2017 FOAMcast; Contrast-Induced Nephropathy and Genitourinary Trauma RELEL.EM; The AMACING Trial: Prehydration to Prevent Contrast Induced Nephropathy (CIN)? Royal College Radiology; Prevention of Contrast Induced Acute Kidney Injury (CI-AKI) In Adult Patients Pre-hospital transfusion of packed red blood cells in 147 patients from a UK helicopter emergency medical service. Lyon RM. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2017 PHEMCAST; blood Systematic review of the effectiveness of prehospital critical care following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. von Vopelius-Feldt J. Resuscitation. 2017 Prophylactic hydration to protect renal function from intravascular iodinated contrast material in patients at high risk of contrast-induced nephropathy (AMACING): a prospective, randomised, phase 3, controlled, open-label, non-inferiority trial. Nijssen EC. Lancet. 2017  

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, Derriford Hospital; The Role of Ultrasound in Trauma Fiona Lecky, Professor Emergency Medicine, Salford; Traumatic Brain Injury: recent progress & future challenges Simon Carley, Professor Emergency Medicine, Central Manchester; The Top 10 trauma papers of 2016 St Emlyn's Top 10 +1 Trauma Papers 2016 Tim Rainer,  Professor Emergency Medicine, Cardiff; Permissive hypotension in blunt trauma David Raven, Emergency Medicine Consultant, Heart of England Foundation Trust; HECTOR & Elderly Trauma The HECTOR Course (& free online manual!!) Ross Fisher, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon Sheffield Children’s Hospital; TARN report for paediatrics p3 presentations TARNlet Database   Have a listen to the podcast and again huge thanks to the speakers for taking their time to share their superb talks with a wider audience. Simon

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 discussion around the topic is also a really important point to consider. Have a listen to the podcast, see what you think and please post you comments on the site for us all to see. Enjoy! Simon References   A Randomised tRial of Expedited transfer to a cardiac arrest centre for non-ST elevation ventricular fibrillation out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: The ARREST pilot randomised trial. Patterson T. Resuscitation. 2017

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 the literature and we would love to hear your thoughts below. Enjoy Simon & Rob References & Further Reading    Association Between Tracheal Intubation During Adult In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest and Survival. Andersen LW. JAMA. 2017 Comprehensive approach to the management of the patient with multiple rib fractures: a review and introduction of a bundled rib fracture management protocol. Cordelie E. Trauma Surg & Acute Care Open. 2017   Are first rib fractures a marker for other life-threatening injuries in patients with major trauma? A cohort study of patients on the UK Trauma Audit and Research Network database. Sammy IA. Emerg Med J. 2017 AIRWAYS-2