5 Nov 2018

November 5, 2018

Written by REBEL Cast

Background: Care of trauma patients with severe bleeding has advanced in recent years with a focus on damage control resuscitation which includes permissive hypotension, hemostatic resuscitation (blood component resuscitation), and hemorrhage control. Minimizing crystalloids in favor of blood component-based resuscitation in the prehospital setting has the potential to reduce downstream complications by intervening closer to the time of injury before the development of coagulopathy, irreversible shock, and inflammatory response.  There is a paucity of high level evidence showing the efficacy and safety of plasma transfusions in the prehospital setting including retrospective studies which suffered from survivor bias (patients had to survive long enough to receive plasma) and small randomized clinical trials not showing survival benefit.  This has led to the publication of two randomized controlled trials: COMBAT and PAMPer.

Medical Categories: Trauma
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27 Sep 2018

September 27, 2018

Written by REBEL Cast

Background:There is a lack of high quality RCTs  investigating optimal airway management in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).  The majority of evidence comes from observational studies and expert opinion. The observational trials have consistently favored basic airway management (i.e. BVM) over tracheal intubation [3]. Supraglottic airway(SGA) devices offer an alternative advanced airway management technique to endotracheal intubation (ETI) during OHCA. SGA devices may offer an advantage over ETI as they are simpler and faster to place.  Additionally, proficiency  with SGAs requires less training and ongoing practice. Although there have been several recent studies published on airway management in OHCA, this post/podcast will focus on the recently published AIRWAYS-2 trial.

Medical Categories: Resuscitation
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6 Aug 2018

August 6, 2018

Written by REBEL Cast
Background: POCUS has been touted as the stethoscope 2.0, a true game changer in patient care.  There is no patient population that this statement should hold more true for, than in patients with undifferentiated shock (SBP <100mmHg or SI > 1). Everyone has a story about how ultrasound changed their management or even saved a patient’s life. Unfortunately, the plural of anecdote is not data.  To date, there have not been any prospective randomized controlled trials examining POCUS outcomes on survival in this population.  Enter the Sonography in Hypotension and Cardiac Arrest in the Emergency Department (SHoC-ED) trial.
Medical Categories: Resuscitation
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25 Jul 2018

July 25, 2018

Written by REBEL Cast
Background: In the ED, POCUS has become one of the most important tools in discovering both the diagnosis and in the management of critically ill patients.  cardiac arrest, is ultimately as sick as a person can get in the spectrum of critical illness.  I mean how can someone be deader than dead, right?  There has been a slew of literature evaluating the use of POCUS in cardiac arrest and many providers have started to incorporate its use into their practice.  Newer literature, however indicates that the use of POCUS prolongs CPR pauses which ultimately impacts good neurological survival.  POCUS protocols may help decrease cognitive load, but many are too cumbersome and complicated.  Enter the Cardiac Arrest Sonographic Assessment (CASA) exam.
Medical Categories: Resuscitation
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20 Jul 2018

July 20, 2018

Written by REBEL Cast, REBEL CME
Background: Epinephrine(adrenaline) has been used in advanced life support in cardiac arrest since the early 1960s. Despite the routine recommendation for its use, evidence to support administration is less than ideal.  Although it is clear from multiple observational studies that epinephrine improves return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and short-term survival, most evidence suggests an absence of improvements in survival with good neurologic outcomes.  In cardiac arrest we want to take advantage of the alpha effects of epinephrine, including peripheral vasoconstriction, and therefore increasing aortic diastolic pressure, which in turn helps augment coronary and cerebral blood flow.  On the other hand, we want to avoid the potentially detrimental beta effects including dysrhythmias, decreased microcirculation, and increased myocardial oxygen demand all of which increase the chances of recurrent cardiac arrest and decreased neurologic recovery.  The only two interventions in cardiac arrest that have shown improve survival with good neurologic outcomes continue to be high-quality CPR and early defibrillation. The debate over the utility of epinephrine in OHCA has been ongoing for several years now and many providers have been awaiting the results of the PARAMEDIC-2 trial that was just published in the NEJM 2018. 
Medical Categories: Resuscitation
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