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Reflections on prehospital care
A complication of the use of an intra-osseous needle
  1. Matthias Helm1,2,
  2. Rudolf Goller3,4,
  3. Carsten Hackenbroch5,6,
  4. Björn Hossfeld1
  1. 1Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Section of Emergency Medicine, Armed Forces Medical Centre Ulm, Ulm, Germany
  2. 2Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, German Field Hospital Mazar-e-Sharif, Camp Marmal, Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan
  3. 3Department of Surgery, Armed Forces Medical Centre Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  4. 4Department of Surgery, German Field Hospital Mazar-e-Sharif, Camp Marmal, Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan
  5. 5Department of Radiology, Armed Forces Medical Centre Ulm, Ulm, Germany
  6. 6Department of Radiology, German Field Hospital Mazar-e-Sharif, Camp Marmal, Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Matthias Helm, Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Section of Emergency Medicine, Federal Armed Forces Medical Centre Ulm, 8970 Ulm, Germany; matthias.helm{at}extern.uni-ulm.de

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2011-200139

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    Intraosseous access has become a fast and safe alternative route for emergency vascular access. This case report highlights one potential complication of the use of one brand of intraosseous needle.

    Vascular access is a vital task in the resuscitation of the critically ill and/or injured. However, in cases in which the patient is in circulatory shock, obtaining peripheral intravenous access can be difficult. In these cases, intraosseous access has become a rapid and safe alternative for providing vascular access in the prehospital setting.1 ,2 We present a case of the breakage of an intraosseous needle in situ and the difficulties in removal and the lessons learnt from this.

    Case report

    A group of soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force participated in a training programme for the use of the FAST-1 …

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.