Drones for Provision of Flotation Support in Simulated Drowning.

OBJECTIVE: The feasibility and potential of using drones for providing flotation devices in cases of drowning have not yet been assessed. We hypothesize that a drone carrying an inflatable life buoy is a faster way to provide flotation compared with traditional methods. The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility and efficiency of using a drone for delivering and providing flotation support to conscious simulated drowning victims. METHODS: A simulation study was performed with a simulated drowning victim 100 m from the shore. A drone (DJI Phantom 4; dji, Shenzhen, China) equipped with an inflatable life buoy of 60 N was compared with traditional surf rescue swimming for providing flotation. The primary outcome was delay (minutes:seconds). RESULTS: A total number of 30 rescues were performed with a median time to delivery of the floating device of 30 seconds (interquartile range [IQR] = 24-32 seconds) for the drone compared with 65 seconds (IQR = 60-77 seconds) with traditional rescue swimming (P < .001). The drone had an accuracy of 100% in dropping the inflatable life buoy < 5 m from the victim, with a median of 1 m (IQR = 1-2 m). CONCLUSION: Using drones to deliver inflatable life buoys is safe and may be a faster method to provide early flotation devices to conscious drowning victims compared with rescue swimming.

The Effectiveness of Four Intervention Methods for Preventing Inadvertent Perioperative Hypothermia During Total Knee or Total Hip Arthroplasty.

Inadvertent perioperative hypothermia (IPH) occurs when a patient experiences a core temperature below 36° C (96.8° F) in perioperative settings and is a preventable risk factor for anesthesia- and surgery-related complications. Forced-air warming is an effective method to maintain normothermia. This study compared four interventions for preventing IPH for 120 patients undergoing primary elective unilateral total knee or total hip arthroplasty. The study was based on a time series nonequivalent comparison group design to investigate whether the incidence of IPH differed among treatment groups. We also sought to determine whether the patients' preoperative perceptions of warmth or cold correlated with core body temperatures. Patients receiving convective warming and prewarming appeared to experience fewer IPH events than patients in the other study groups. This study suggests that hypothermia is a common issue for patients undergoing total knee or total hip arthroplasty and that it may be possible to reduce its frequency.