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
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
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
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.
JC: K is Good For You – Subdissociative Ketamine vs Morphine in the ED Read More
The 2015 ProMISe trial compared early goal-directed therapy with usual care for patients with septic shock in UK hospitals. This appraisal examines mortality, treatment overlap and patient selection, asking what the findings added to ARISE and ProCESS and which questions about individualised care remained unresolved.
The ProMISe Study: EGDT RIP? Read More
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.
JC: Drinking From the Firehose – Keeping Up with the Literature Read More
