Critical Care

Recordings and commentary from SASEM 2022 on evidence for emergency airway management, including cardiac arrest, video laryngoscopy and surgical airways. The post also includes talks on research from 2021 and troponin-based assessment of possible myocardial infarction.

Simon Carley's SASEM 2022 talk challenges familiar assumptions in resuscitation. The accompanying post explores airway management, chest drainage, calcium, transfusion and team behaviour, asking whether procedures are driven by patient need or clinicians' habits and preferences.

A 2022 appraisal of a randomised trial comparing etomidate and ketamine for emergency intubation. It considers seven-day and 28-day survival, cardiovascular outcomes and the limits of applying results from a single US centre to other patients and airway systems.

Why might a bleeding trauma patient have a slow heart rate? Rich Carden explores the Bezold-Jarisch reflex, its proposed role in bradycardia during haemorrhage and the danger of assuming that an absence of tachycardia means an absence of blood loss.

A January 2022 appraisal of a randomised trial of routine calcium in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Laura Howard examines return of circulation, survival and safety concerns, including the implications of stopping the trial early and excluding patients with specific indications for calcium.

A 2021 review of pulse oximetry accuracy in patients assessed for ECMO. It examines differences in unrecognised hypoxaemia between reported racial groups, the limitations of retrospective data and why skin pigmentation needs more precise investigation than broad racial classifications allow.