TY - JOUR T1 - Highlights from this issue JF - Emergency Medicine Journal JO - Emerg Med J SP - 261 LP - 261 DO - 10.1136/emermed-2014-203638 VL - 31 IS - 4 AU - Mary Dawood Y1 - 2014/04/01 UR - http://emj.bmj.com/content/31/4/261.abstract N2 - The development of major trauma networks in the UK has increased bed pressures in hospitals that are designated as major trauma centre's. However not all patients that are brought to a MTC need admission to a trauma ward, some may just need a few hours observation and support so, it was interesting to read the paper by Michael Dinh et al from Australia whose study aimed to derive and validate a prediction rule for short stay admissions. They conducted a retrospective study of all trauma activation patients requiring inpatient admission at a single inner city major trauma centre in Australia between 2007 and 2011. 2593 patients were studied with 30 % being classified as SAA's. Whilst they suggest that further studies are required to prospectively validate the prediction rule this paper will be of interest to those of us already managing trauma patients on SSA's/CDU's. FAST scans (focused assessment with sonography in trauma) have a key part to play in the rapid assessment of thoraco-abdominal trauma. A study by Smith and Wood in South Africa suggests FAST may also have an added value. This study set out to evaluate FAST's efficacy with respect to patients' haemodynamic … ER -