Journal Club

This 2015 journal club examines a trial comparing intravenous lorazepam and diazepam for children with convulsive status epilepticus. Alongside seizure control and adverse effects, the appraisal explores blinding, per-protocol analysis and why failing to demonstrate superiority does not prove that the treatments are equivalent.

Simon Carley selects ten trauma papers from 2014–2015, with an accompanying discussion with Simon Laing. The review spans transfusion, brain injury, prehospital care, airway management, haemorrhage prediction and thoracotomy, linking to the original studies and highlighting questions raised by this period’s trauma research.

Can a subdissociative dose of ketamine provide comparable pain relief to intravenous morphine? This 2015 journal club examines a small emergency department trial, considering pain scores, rescue analgesia, adverse effects and blinding, while explaining why failure to find a difference does not establish equivalence.

How can emergency clinicians keep up with research without being overwhelmed? This 2015 guide explains the team’s approaches to personalised PubMed alerts, journal and topic searches, RSS readers and shared coverage with colleagues, while emphasising that online appraisals should support reading the original literature.

What can a long-running intubation registry tell us about airway care in the emergency department? This 2015 journal club examines Scottish data on intubation success, collaboration with anaesthetists and training, while considering missing records and the limitations of combining practice across fourteen years.

Which balance of plasma, platelets and red cells should be used in major traumatic haemorrhage? This 2015 appraisal of the PROPPR trial examines mortality, haemostasis and deaths from bleeding, considering study power and the practical challenges of interpreting the results for transfusion protocols.