Trauma life support

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to determine the impact that PHTLS® course participation had on self-confidence of emergency personnel, regarding the pre-hospital treatment of patients who had suffered severe trauma. Furthermore, the goal was to determine the impact of specific medical profession, work experience and prior course participation had on the benefits of PHTLS® training. METHODS: A structured questionnaire study was performed. Healthcare providers from local emergency services involved in pre-hospital care in the metropolitan area of Zurich (Switzerland, Europe) who completed a PHTLS® course were included...

This study aimed to understand parents' process of centering their child's interpersonal traumatic event in their lives post-disclosure. Specifically, how it informed their understanding of themselves, their lives, and the world. This phenomenon of centering a traumatic event in one's life is termed event centrality and has not been previously applied to qualitative research or this population. Participants were 17 primary caregivers (14 maternal caregivers and 3 paternal caregivers) of 27 victims of child interpersonal trauma (14 males and 13 females) located in Canada...

Compassion fatigue is the cost of caring for others in emotional pain where the helping professional absorbs the trauma of those they help and cannot detach emotionally at the end of the day. Stressful and perceived unsupportive work environments may leave the caregiver at a heightened risk for compassion fatigue. To study the level of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction experienced by mental health nurses. A descriptive, cross-sectional, electronic survey design was utilized. The Professional Quality of Life Scale-5 was used...

BACKGROUND: Sexually exploited young men are prevalent, yet underrepresented in clinical practice, policy and research. There are multiple barriers that often prevent young men to disclose and to seek or receive support, such as gender norms, limited awareness of victimization and feelings of guilt and shame. OBJECTIVE: By gaining more insight into the background characteristics of young men who experienced sexual exploitation and their needs, this study aims to raise awareness and to better inform policymakers, care- and educational professionals on adequate prevention and intervention efforts...

BACKGROUND: The likelihood of return of spontaneous circulation with conventional advanced life support is known to have an exponential decline and therefore neurological outcome after 20 min in patients with a cardiac arrest is poor. Initiation of venoarterial ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) during resuscitation might improve outcomes if used in time and in a selected patient category. However, previous studies have failed to significantly reduce the time from cardiac arrest to ECMO flow to less than 60 min...

IMPORTANCE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is marked by the contrasting symptoms of hyperemotional reactivity and emotional numbing (ie, reduced emotional reactivity). Comprehending the mechanism that governs the transition between neutral and negative emotional states is crucial for developing targeted therapeutic strategies. OBJECTIVES: To explore whether individuals with PTSD experience a more pronounced shift between neutral and negative emotional states and how the intensity of emotional numbing symptoms impacts this shift...

The bone is a large and complex organ (12-15% of body weight) consisting of specialized connective tissues (bone matrix and bone marrow), whereas joints are composed of cartilage, tendons, ligaments, synovial joint capsules and membranes, and a synovial joint cavity filled with synovial fluid. Maintaining healthy bones and joints is a dynamic and complex process, as bone deposition (formation of new bone materials) and resorption (breakdown of the bone matrix to release calcium and phosphorus) are the continuous processes to determine bone balance...

INTRODUCTION: The course in Primary Care in Pediatric Trauma (ATIP in Spanish) has been taught in Spain since 1997, and there are currently 9 accredited training centers. Care of polytraumatized pediatric patients often takes place in an environment conducive to errors resulting from forgetfulness, which is why checklists - mnemonic tools widely used in industry and medicine - are particularly useful to avoid such errors. Although several checklists exist for pediatric trauma care, none have been developed within the setting of our course...

OBJECTIVES: Despite the large burden of critically ill patients in developing countries, mechanical ventilation (MV) is scarce in these low-resource settings. In the absence of data, issues like costs and lack of training are often felt to outweigh the benefits of potential MV implementation in such places. We aimed to investigate the impact and feasibility of MV in a surgical ICU in West Africa. DESIGN: This is a 7-month retrospective observational study (from October 25, 2022, to May 25, 2023), covering all patients consecutively admitted to ICU...

Severe bleeding is the leading cause of death in patients with major trauma admitted to the emergency department. It is estimated that about 50% of deaths happen within a few minutes of the traumatic event due to massive hemorrhage; 30% of deaths are related to neurological dysfunction and typically happen within two days of trauma; and approximately 20% of patients died of multiorgan failure and sepsis within days to weeks of the traumatic event. Over the past ten years, there has been an increased understanding of the underlying mechanisms and pathophysiology associated with traumatic bleeding leading to improved management measures...

BACKGROUND: Shortness of breath is a common complaint among individuals contacting emergency communication center (EMCCs). In some prehospital system, emergency medical services include an advanced life support (ALS)-capable team. Whether such team should be dispatched during the phone call or delayed until the BLS-capable paramedic team reports from the scene is unclear. We aimed to evaluate the impact of delayed MMT dispatch until receiving the paramedic review compared to immediate dispatch at the time of the call on patient outcomes...

BACKGROUND: Accidental hypothermia is common in all trauma patients and contributes to the lethal diamond, increasing both morbidity and mortality. In hypotensive shock, fluid resuscitation is recommended using fluids with a temperature of 37-42°, as fluid temperature can decrease the patient's body temperature. In Sweden, virtually all prehospital services use preheated fluids. The aim of the present study was to investigate how the temperature of preheated infusion fluids is affected by the ambient temperatures and flow rates relevant for prehospital emergency care...

Prehospital emergency medical services play a vital role in providing essential emergency medical and trauma care. However, in many low- and middle-income countries, there is a significant lack of adequate emergency medical services coverage, a problem compounded by a profound deficit of first responder training programs. The African Federation of Emergency Medicine classifies prehospital emergency care into 2 categories: tier-1, which includes laypersons, and tier-2, consisting of professionals equipped with dispatch capabilities...

Recovery from a severe burn injury requires early and aggressive therapy, which is often painful and distressing to the patient. Burn therapists who guide these interventions may be prone to experiencing secondary trauma and compassion fatigue through repeated exposure to difficult situations. At the same time, therapists may gain a sense of purpose and altruism from their work, fostering compassion satisfaction. Despite being well documented in other health professions, compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction have not been sufficiently explored among burn therapists...

BACKGROUND: Management of trauma patients includes prevention, prehospital care, appropriate resuscitation at a hospital, definitive treatment, and rehabilitation. Timely and adequate care for a trauma patient is paramount, which can dramatically impact survival. This study was planned to assess the proportion of patients who failed to receive adequate prehospital care before reaching our institute. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in the trauma and emergency department of a level-1 trauma center in eastern India from February to April 2022...

After discharge of premature infants with complex care needs from the neonatal intensive care unit, a care gap arises due to the transition from inpatient to outpatient care. Consequences can be rehospitalization, revolving door effects, and high costs. Therefore, following hospitalization or inpatient rehabilitation, the patient is intended to transition to sociomedical aftercare. The legal basis for this is formed by § 43 paragraph 2 of the Fifth Book of the German Social Code (SGB V)...

Uncontrolled bleeding after trauma represents a substantial clinical problem. The current standard of care to treat bleeding after trauma is transfusion of blood products including platelets; however, donated platelets have a short shelf life, are in limited supply, and carry immunogenicity and contamination risks. Consequently, there is a critical need to develop hemostatic platelet alternatives. To this end, we developed synthetic platelet-like particles (PLPs), formulated by functionalizing highly deformable microgel particles composed of ultralow cross-linked poly ( N -isopropylacrylamide) with fibrin-binding ligands...

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe and progressive neurological condition caused by trauma to the nervous system, resulting in lifelong disability and severe comorbidities. This condition imposes serious limitations on everyday life, interfering with patients' social lives and compromising their quality of life, psychological well-being, and daily living activities. Rehabilitation is essential to helping SCI patients gain more independence in their daily routines. Home automation (HA) systems provide personalized support to users, allowing them to manage various aspects of their living environment, promoting independence and well-being...

Enteric fistulas are a common problem in gastrointestinal tract surgery and remain associated with significant mortality rates, due to complications such as sepsis, malnutrition, and electrolyte imbalance. The increasingly widespread use of open abdomen techniques for the initial treatment of abdominal sepsis and trauma has led to the observation of so-called entero-atmospheric fistulas. Because of their clinical complexity, the proper management of enteric fistula requires a multidisciplinary team. The main goal of the treatment is the closure of enteric fistula, but also mortality reduction and improvement of patients' quality of life are fundamental...

We present the data of the first six annual surveys of the large prospective population-based Dutch VICTIMS-study that started in 2018. Each survey systematically examines exposure to potential traumatic events in the past 12 months, including time of event and amount of stress during the event. Furthermore, each survey assesses anxiety and depression symptomatology, lack of social support, physical, mental, work, partner/family, religious, legal, administrative and financial problems, and problem-related services use...