Resuscitation Council (UK) basic and advanced life support guidelines 2015

The Knowledge and Awareness of Medical Emergencies and Management among Dental Students

Background:

Every dentist should anticipate being confronted with a medical emergency (ME), and one should always be ready to treat the most catastrophic ones.

Aim:

This study aimed to assess the knowledge of dental clinical students of Tamil Nadu in the ME understanding and management to create awareness toward patient care.

Methodology:

A total of 768 dental students, including final-year students and residents from different colleges, took part in the questionnaire-based cross-sectional study. The selection of study participants was by the convenience sampling method. The questionnaire contained thirty closed multiple-choice questions to assess their knowledge of MEs. Microsoft Office Excel software was used for compiling the answers. The descriptive analysis of the data is exhibited in graphs.

Results:

The majority of participants were mindful of the vital signs; only 55% of the participants know the importance of checking their respiration rate. The knowledge of identifying MEs such as anaphylaxis was 91%, and only 27%–37% of the respondents knew to identify angina, transient ischemia, and lidocaine toxicity. Approximately 15%–40% of the respondents only knew the management of angina, cardiac arrest, hyperventilation, respiratory obstruction, and seizure. Only 10% agreed that the best office emergency kit should be prepared by themselves. Roughly 78% of the respondents were conscious of the patient's referral whenever necessary and aware of state dental acts.

Conclusion:

This study reflects a significant need for training in executing ME among dental students who are to transmute into future dental professionals.

Reducing the futile transportation of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: a retrospective validation

Objectives:

The primary aim was to measure the predictive value of a termination of resuscitation guideline that allows for pre-hospital termination of adult cardiac arrests of presumed cardiac aetiology where the patient did not present in a shockable cardiac rhythm and did not achieve return of spontaneous circulation on-scene. The secondary objective was to compare the effectiveness of that guideline with existing basic life support and advanced life support guidelines.

Methods:

A retrospective review of 2139 adult out-of-hospital primary cardiac arrest patients transported to hospital by a single ambulance trust during a 12-month period between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015.

Results:

Application of the new guideline identified 832 for termination, from which three (0.4%) survived, resulting in a specificity of 99.1% (95% CI: 97.4% to 99.8%), PPV of 99.6% (95% CI: 99% to 99.9%), sensitivity of 46.5% (95% CI: 44.1% to 48.8%) and NPV of 25.6% (95% CI: 23.2% to 28.1%). The transport rate was 60.7%, compared to 72.8% for the basic life support guideline and 95.2% for the advanced life support guideline.

Conclusions:

Within the tested cohort, a reduction of 39.3% in transport of adult out-of-hospital primary cardiac arrest of presumed cardiac aetiology could have been achieved if using a termination of resuscitation guideline that allows for termination on-scene when the patient presented in a non-shockable rhythm and there has been no return of spontaneous circulation. These guidelines require prospective validation, but may identify more futile transportations than other previously validated guidelines.