Knowledge, attitudes, practices and perceived barriers of emergency health care providers regarding sepsis and septic shock in a tertiary care centre: A cross-sectional study.

This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes, practices, and perceived barriers of emergency healthcare providers regarding the management of sepsis and septic shock. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Emergency Department of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan from August to October 2017. A total of 53 healthcare providers participated in the study. Overall, 42(79%) of the participants demonstrated correct knowledge of the sepsis bundle. The most common barrier reported in the compliance of the sepsis bundle was a shortage of staff (62%), followed by delayed presentation of patients (58%) and overcrowding (42%). Furthermore, better staffing was perceived by the participants (60%) to improve the care of septic patients, followed by sepsis awareness sessions (23%) and reduction in ED crowding (11%). Staff shortage, delayed presentation of patients, and ED overcrowding were considered the most common barriers in the management of sepsis in this setting.

Clinical utility of routine investigations and risk factors of end-organ damage in asymptomatic severe hypertension.

Asymptomatic severe hypertension is defined as systolic blood pressure of ≥ 180 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure of ≥ 120 mmHg without signs and symptoms of end-organ damage or dysfunction. Literature shows that around 5% of the patients with severe asymptomatic hypertension had acute hypertension-related end-organ damage. This study aimed to determine the clinical utility of routine investigations and risk factors of end-organ damage in patients presented to the emergency department with  asymptomatic severe hypertension. This single-center, cross-sectional study was conducted at the emergency department of the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, from January 2018 to December 2020. All adult patients (age ≥ 18 years) presented to the emergency department with a systolic blood pressure of ≥ 180 or diastolic blood pressure of ≥ 120 mmHg without any signs and symptoms of end-organ damage (e.g., chest pain, unilateral limb or facial weakness, or hemiplegia, altered mental status, shortness of breath, decreased urine output, and sudden-onset of severe headache) were included. Routine investigations were analyzed to detect end-organ damage, including complete blood count, basic metabolic panel, urine detailed report, electrocardiogram, and troponin-I. Multivariable binary logistic regression was applied to identify the risk factors of end-organ damage considering the significant p value of ≤ 0.05. A total of 180 patients were presented to the emergency department with asymptomatic severe hypertension during the study period. Among the total patients, 60 patients (33.3%) had abnormal investigation findings; out of them, new-onset end-organ damage was diagnosed in 15 patients (8.3%). The most common end-organ damage was the kidney (73.3%) followed by the heart (26.6%). The multivariable binary logistic regression showed that age of more than 60 years, past medical history of diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and cerebrovascular accident were significantly associated with a higher risk of end-organ damage (p < 0.05). The study identified a higher prevalence of abnormal routine investigations and acute end-organ damage in emergency department patients with asymptomatic severe hypertension compared to high-income countries and suggested a lower threshold for end-organ damage screening in these patients. The current recommendations of foregoing further workup in patients with asymptomatic severe hypertension may need modification for emergency departments in low-middle-income countries if similar associations are replicated in other settings.

Effectiveness of High-Fidelity Simulation in Training Emergency Medicine Physicians in Point of Care Ultrasonography in Pakistan: A Quasi-Experimental Study.

Background Point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) is frequently utilized in emergency medicine (EM), with an extended-focused assessment with sonography in trauma (e-FAST) being the most widely used PoCUS modality. This modality is not only time- and cost-efficient, but it is highly accurate in the diagnosis and management of surgical patients in the emergency department, as well as being highly predictive of patient outcomes. Targeted training is essential to ensure a learner's confidence in image acquisition, interpretation, and translation of knowledge to making clinical decisions. High-fidelity simulation offers a uniquely safe and "mistake-forgiving" environment to teach and train medical professionals. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a high-fidelity simulator to train EM physicians in e-FAST at a tertiary care teaching hospital in a lower-middle-income country. Methods This quasi-experimental study was performed at a state-of-the-art simulation center of a multidisciplinary university hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Subjects were included if they were EM physicians who volunteered to participate and were available for the entire training and testing period. The educational intervention included lectures and hands-on practice on a high-fidelity simulator (SonoSim, Santa Monica, CA). Knowledge and image interpretation on e-FAST were evaluated using a questionnaire, administered before and after the training course. Each participant's ability to acquire and interpret satisfactory images was assessed by experienced EM physicians and recorded. Participants were also administered a needs assessment survey and a course evaluation. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). All the tests were two-sided, and p-values ≤0.05 were considered significant. Baseline characteristics and outcome variables were recorded and compared by Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Results A total of 31 EM physicians, 12 (38.7%) men and 19 (61.3%) women, were enrolled in the study, with 24 (77.3%) having one to three years of EM experience. Mean and percentage group performance improved from 6 and 40% before the intervention to 14.5 and 96.6% after the intervention (Z=4.867, p≤0.05). Most improvement in image acquisition on high-fidelity simulation was observed in the upper right quadrant of the suprapubic window (29/31; 93.5%), followed by the upper left quadrant (27/31; 87%) and the subxiphoid window (21/31; 67%). All 31 participants reported improvements in comfort and confidence level with PoCUS after attending the workshop. Conclusions EM physicians who attended a brief workshop incorporating simulation demonstrated improvements in knowledge and image acquisition skills in all domains tested. High-fidelity simulation training is an effective modality for training EM physicians in e-FAST.