Tactical Medicine News Blog

Background: Each year approximately 790,000 Americans suffer an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (Benjamin 2017). Traditional treatment for an acute myocardial infarction has included morphine, oxygen, nitroglycerine and aspirin (MONA) with interventions such as percutaneous coronary intervention providing more definitive management. There has been little data from randomized control studies that supports the use of oxygen in AMI. Recent studies such as the AVOID trial suggest that hyperoxia results in harm while a 2016 Cochrane Review suggest no benefit in supplemental oxygen. (Stub 2015, Cabello 2016). There has, however, not been a large randomized control study comparing supplemental O2 to ambient air with patient centered outcomes until the DETO2X-AMI trial.

Why do we splint? Splinting is one of the fundamental procedures of the Emergency Department (ED). How well-versed are we with it? Why do we even splint? By the end of this post, you will know the reason why we splint, when to splint, and just as importantly — when NOT to splint in the ED.

Background: Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) has gained wider use in resuscitation of patients presenting with cardiac arrest. POCUS can play an important role in determining the etiology of arrest as well as being used to determine the presence or absence of mechanical activity. The REASON study demonstrated that patients with PEA or asystole without cardiac activity on POCUS are extremely unlikely to survive to hospital discharge though this study did not investigate the more important question of a survival with a good neurologic outcome. (Gaspari 2016). In light of this as well as other evidence, some have proposed that the absence of cardiac activity may be adequate to declare resuscitation futility and stop resuscitative efforts. However, there is a lack of agreement on what defines cardiac activity (see table 1). Due to this, and other factors, the level of agreement between physicians in interpretation of cardiac standstill is unknown.

The purpose of the SplintER series is to teach the fundamentals and introduce advanced concepts of splinting to the Emergency Medicine (EM) professional. Humans have been splinting their injuries since 1300 B.C.1 Although the fundamentals have not changed, splint selection and application require some thoughtful consideration. A 2017 prospective, observational study in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics demonstrated that more than 90% of splints applied in the Emergency Department were inappropriate (30% applied by EM attendings), as evaluated by orthopaedic surgeons.2 While that number may not be representative in your institution, it certainly highlights the inadequacies that many of us feel when approaching a splint!

Our work isn’t easy, but it would be impossible without the help of our colleagues. It’s time for our second post on How Our ED Colleagues Stay Healthy in EM! Liz Crowe is an Advanced Clinical Social Worker from Brisbane, Australia. She is no stranger to the FOAMed world, and her electric personality is infectious. Always laughing, always trying to make others smile, that’s just how she rolls. Here’s how she stays healthy in EM!