Evidence-Based Medicine

How do experienced prehospital clinicians decide when to give blood? This appraisal explores a qualitative study of physicians at two UK air ambulance services, examining the role of experience and uncertainty, and what these decisions can teach us about training and reflection.

A review of the 2023 ILCOR consensus update, focusing on adult resuscitation. Topics include extracorporeal CPR, double sequential defibrillation, calcium, drowning and prognostication, with attention to the uncertainties in the evidence and the continued importance of basic resuscitation care.

Does an emergency physician's age relate to patient outcomes? This appraisal examines a retrospective study of older US patients, its association between physician age and seven-day mortality, and the uncertainty about what might explain that association.

Top 10 papers from 2022-2023 for the SASEM 2023 conference in Jeddah.

Should patients with restored circulation after cardiac arrest bypass their nearest hospital for a specialist centre? This appraisal of the ARREST trial examines patients without ST elevation, the lack of a survival benefit and the limits of applying London's results elsewhere.

How accurately can prehospital clinicians recognise life-threatening injuries from clinical examination? This appraisal examines a retrospective trauma study, the limits of its diagnostic accuracy findings and why uncertainty should inform decisions without abandoning examination altogether.