Evidence-Based Medicine

A 2022 appraisal of the FORCE trial comparing an offer of bandaging with rigid immobilisation for children's distal radius buckle fractures. It examines pain outcomes, treatment preferences and how the trial design reflects conversations with children and families.

A 2022 journal club on the association between delays to hospital admission from the emergency department and 30-day mortality. The review examines a large English dataset, unmeasured illness severity and the limits of drawing causal conclusions from observational evidence.

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.

Iain and Simon revisit highlights from the St Emlyn's blog in December 2021. The episode combines the monthly round-up with reflections on the year and a look ahead to 2022.

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.

Can newer CT scanners reliably exclude subarachnoid haemorrhage beyond six hours? This 2021 appraisal examines a retrospective study, focusing on patient selection, uncertain symptom timings and why cumulative sensitivity figures may not answer the emergency clinician's question.