Musings form the evidence based journal club at St Emlyns
Category: Journal Club
December 2021 Podcast round up. St Emlyn’s
Iain and Simon recap the highlights on the blog from December 2021. The best of the month plus a few reflections on the year and a look forward to 2022. vb S
JC: Should we use calcium in out of hospital cardiac arrest? St Emlyn’s
A trial published in JAMA asks exactly this question, the full text can be found here. The abstract is below, but as we always say, please read the full paper yourself. Previous studies have shown …
JC: Are CT scanners getting more sensitive at detecting SAH? St Emlyn’s
There is no doubt that sub-arachnoid haemorrhage is an important diagnosis in the emergency department. It is arguably especially important in the cohort of patients who present with lesser signs/symptoms as they are the group …
JC: More on pulse oximetry and racial bias. St Emlyn’s
This week we are reviewing a paper on the accuracy of pulse oximetry in patients being assessed for ECMO. This is an interesting group as they represent and extremely unwell group of patients where small …
JC: Can we use smaller pigtail drains in traumatic haemothorax?
Back in 2016 we published a blog on chest drains and chest aspiration, in which we argued that the dogma of putting in huge drains for traumatic haemothoraces should be questioned. The dogma of using …
JC: Re-evaluating risk factors for Cauda Equina. St Emlyn’s
The diagnosis of cauda equina in the emergency department is complex and has the potential for significant patient harm if we get it wrong. Linda Dykes put together an excellent infographic on this back in …
JC: The REST trial. St Emlyn’s
Some years ago I remember speaking to a rather well known intensivist who was advocating for the extracorporeal removal of CO2 in ICU patients. His logic was that in patients with hypoxic lung failure we …
JC: CTCA for cardiac chest pain in the ED. St Emlyn’s
Computed Coronary Angiography (CTCA) has been advocated as a useful adjunct in the investigation of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) in the ED. Although we’ve made huge progress in the diagnosis of ACS through the use …
Top 10 Trauma Papers for Trauma UK conference. 2020-2021. St Emyln’s
It’s that time of year again when the Trauma Care UK conference comes around and I get to talk about 10 interesting trauma papers from the last 12 months or so. This is a regular …
JC: Non-invasive ventilation for COVID 19 patients. The Recovery RS trial. St Emlyn’s
I remember back at the beginning of the pandemic when we were seeing lots of patients arriving in the ED in extremis. The now familiar picture of the deeply hypoxic patient with terrible chest X-rays …
