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Emerg Med J 27:62-71 doi:10.1136/emj.2008.062810
  • Prehospital care

Defining a standard medication kit for prehospital and retrieval physicians: a comprehensive review

  1. J Sadewasser1,
  2. A Potter2,
  3. D Ellis3
  1. 1
    CareFlight Medical Services, Queensland, Australia
  2. 2
    Cairns Base Hospital, Department of Anaesthetics, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
  3. 3
    University College London Hospital, London, Essex and Herts Air Ambulance and Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr J Sadewasser, CareFlight Medical Services, EMQ Hangar 12, Bushpilot Avenue, Aeroglen, Queensland 4870, Australia; sadewasser{at}lycos.com
  • Accepted 16 March 2009

Abstract

Background: There is little consolidated evidence for which prehospital and retrieval drugs a given service should carry.

Objectives: To suggest a core group of drugs based on the best evidence currently available.

Methods: This paper has reviewed documents from recognised evidence-based sources and put together an initial skeleton for an evidence-based drug pack.

Results: The resultant list of drugs is divided up into core agents with suggestions for regional variations. This may be of particular interest to de novo services.

Conclusions: This review offers a starting point for services based on the evidence currently available. It is hoped that prehospital and retrieval clinicians will start to look analytically at what they carry and, through a process of audit, aim to improve the evidence in this area. Future reviews and comparisons of worldwide prehospital and retrieval databases are suggested.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests None.

  • Provenance and Peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.