Does therapeutic hypothermia improve outcomes after cardiac arrest in children? This 2015 journal club examines a trial comparing cooling with active temperature control after out-of-hospital arrest, exploring neurological outcomes, confidence intervals, study limitations and why a non-significant result does not establish that two treatments are equivalent.
JC: Getting Chilly Quickly 4. Doing It For The Kids Read More
Highlights from the 2015 neuroanaesthesia and critical care meeting in Manchester, with a focus on collaboration around traumatic brain injury. Dan Horner reflects on variation in practice, fatigue and situational awareness, specialist intensive care, tracheostomy safety and communication with patients who experience awareness during anaesthesia.
Neurocritical care in Manchester NASGBI and St.Emlyn’s Read More
What happens when James Lind’s scurvy experiment meets a modern critical appraisal checklist? Written for International Clinical Trials Day 2015, this deliberately playful review uses the historic study to explain randomisation, outcome definitions, statistical uncertainty and how expectations of clinical research have changed.
JC: An International Clinical Trials Day Special Read More
How much does describing chest pain as ‘typical’ tell us about the final diagnosis? Simon Carley reviews a 2015 observational study of clinician judgement, questioning the value of experience alone and examining how patient selection, specificity and the presentation of diagnostic performance affect interpretation.
JC: Are typical chest pain symptoms predictive of outcome? St.Emlyn’s Read More
An archived invitation to the social runs organised around SMACC Chicago in June 2015. The post shares the original meeting arrangements and a promotional podcast with Jesse Spurr, emphasising an inclusive, informal way for delegates to meet and exercise together rather than a competitive race.
Feeling Fit in Chicago: Join the smaccRUN! Read More
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.
JC: One Benzo Fits All? Lorazepam vs Diazepam for Paediatric Status Epilepticus Read More
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.
Top 10 Trauma papers 2014-2015. St.Emlyn’s Read More
What might emergency clinicians learn from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War? This reflective essay applies ideas about preparation, self-awareness, teamwork and adaptability to the pressures of emergency care, treating organisational challenges as the adversary and explicitly rejecting the idea that patients are enemies.
