Primary survey
This month’s issue has something for everyone, whether it be paediatric or adult, prehospital or hospital, quantitative or qualitative research. Indeed, the range of material presented is a positive reflection of the diverse nature of emergency medicine practice.
Systems to manage head injuries
Debate continues at local, regional, national and international levels regarding how to best organise systems in order to provide trauma care. Arguments have tended to focus upon the optimal management of patients with head injuries, particularly considering whether the benefits of receiving expert care at specialised tertiary referral centres more than offsets the potential disadvantages relating to delay to treatment caused by transfer times. Sollid and colleagues report on the organisation of services designed to manage head injuries in the Nordic countries. Referring to the Brain Trauma Foundation guidelines, they challenge some current practice whereby a substantial proportion of operations for acute head trauma are performed at hospitals without specialist neurosurgical expertise (see page 769).
Qualitative research made easy
Many emergency medicine practitioners are comfortable …
