New resuscitation guidelines

The 2005 resuscitation guidelines (released first on the Resuscitation Council website www.resus.org.uk) are certain to have a significant impact upon practice. Changes affect a wide range of guidelines and are justified according to the current available evidence. Faced with these changes, Sophia has empathy with one commentator who states “it’s not hard to learn new guidelines, but it’s certainly very difficult to forget the old ones”.

Prehospital fluids for trauma

This thorough Norwegian review will be of interest to all practitioners who treat injured patients in a prehospital setting. The authors consider current issues, particularly in relation to types of fluid and volumes in the light of the available evidence. They favour an initial hypertonic saline infusion followed by a crystalloid infusion as fluid resuscitation in the prehospital trauma environment. However, they acknowledge that there is insufficient data to provide a definite direction and that more work is required (

.

Variation in cricoid pressure application

This observational study of Australian emergency department staff tested their ability to provide adequate cricoid pressure to a model of a larynx at the correct force (30–40 Newtons). The results revealed that the …