Exploration of the Challenges of COVID-19 from the Perspective of Emergency Medicine Specialists.

Background: Emergency physicians are at the forefront of the medical system in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. Identifying the challenges, along with the strategies and effective measures implemented by them in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, can be a roadmap for future crisis management planning. This study aims to explain the challenges faced by emergency physicians regarding COVID-19. Methods: This study is a qualitative content analysis. Data were collected using individual and semistructured interviews. Twenty-seven emergency medical specialists in Fars University of Medical Sciences, Iran, participated in the study by purposive sampling method and were interviewed using semistructured interviews. Results: Participants' experience of COVID-19 led to the extraction of four main themes, including structural factors, threats to the health of the medical team, fluctuations of extremism and wastage in the face of COVID-19, and the country's policymaking hierarchy. Conclusions: Emergency physicians face challenges such as structural factors, health threats, extreme fluctuations, and national policymaking. To avoid surprises and threats, they must predict acute scenarios, provide necessary equipment, address skilled manpower shortages, and adopt appropriate management policies. This includes culture-building, cross-sector coordination, planning, and efficient management to prevent virus spread.

Transferred Patients by Fars Province's Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS); A 2-Years Cross-Sectional Study in Southern Iran.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the patients transferred by helicopters, as well as an emergent medical services that were performed for them. METHODS: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, all patients who were transferred by Fars province of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) to Shiraz hospitals, southern Iran (March 2017-March 2019) were investigated. Patients' information was collected and analyzed includes age, gender, dispatch reason, trauma mechanisms, take hold of emergent medical services, as well as the air transportation time, time between dispatch from the origin hospital and starting the procedures, and patients' outcome. RESULTS: Eighty-three patients were enrolled with the mean±SD age of 36.9±19.47 years that 75.9% had trauma (p<0.0001). Mental status deterioration (25.3%) was the most dispatched indications. The mortality rate was 13.25% totally (11.11% in traumatic vs. 10% in non-traumatic). The mean±SD of air transportation time was significantly lower than ground transportation in both traumatic (p=0.0013) and non-traumatic (p<0.0001) patients. Also, the mean±SD of time between dispatch from the origin hospital and starting the procedures was statistically lower in air transportation in both traumatic (p=0.0028) and non-traumatic (p=0.0017) patients. CONCLUSION: Most of the patients transferred by HEMS were traumatic. The air transportation time as well as the time between dispatches from the origin hospital to the starting of the procedures were significantly lower in HEMS in comparison with ground transportation for both traumatic and non-traumatic patients.

The Frequency of Brain CT-Scan Findings in Patients with Scalp Lacerations Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury; A Cross-Sectional Study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of the brain CT-scan findings in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and scalp lacerations. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted during a 1-year period from March 2016 to March 2017 in Level I trauma center in Shiraz, Southern Iran. We included all the adult patients (≥18 years) admitted to our emergency room with mild TBI (GCS on admission of 15) and scalp lacerations. All the patients underwent Brain CT-Scan and the scans were reviewed by two radiologists who were unaware of the patients' clinical findings. The results are reported as proportions and frequencies. RESULTS: Overall we included a total number of 94 patients with minimal TBI who had a scalp laceration on admission. The mean age of the patients was 30.78 ± 8.01 (ranging from 18 to 47) years. There were 58 (61.7%) men and 36 (38.3%) women among the patients. The most common finding of the Brain CT-Scan was subgaleal hematoma in 76 (80.9%) patients followed by base skull base fracture in 7 (7.4%), linear skull fracture in 7 (7.4%), brain contusion in 3 (3.2%) and subdural hematoma in 1 (1.1%). CONCLUSION: The results of the current study indicate that scalp lacerations are associated with intracranial injuries in about 20% of the patients with mild TBI. Thus brain CT-scan is recommended in all the patients with mild TBI and scalp lacerations.

Pain management of acute limb trauma patients with intravenous lidocaine in emergency department.

INTRODUCTION: This study was designed to assess the possible superiority of intravenous lidocaine to morphine for pain management. METHODS: This was a randomized double blind controlled superiority trial, carried on in the emergency department (ED). Traumatic patients older than 18-year-old with the complaint of acute pain greater than 4 on a numeric rating scale (NRS) from 0 to 10 on their extremities were eligible. One group received IV lidocaine (1.5 mg/kg), and the other received IV morphine (0.1mg/kg). Pain scores and adverse effects were assessed at 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes and patients' satisfaction was evaluated two hours later. A minimum pain score reduction of 1.3 from baseline was considered clinically significant. RESULTS: Fifty patients with the mean age of 31.28±8.7 were enrolled (78% male). The demographic characteristics and pain scores of the two groups was similar. The on-arrival mean pain scores in two groups were, lidocaine: 7.9±1.4 and morphine: 8.0±1.4 (p=0.57) and after 1 hour were, lidocaine: 2.28±1.2 and morphine: 3.2±1.7. Although the pain score decreased significantly in both group (p=0.027), there were not any clinically and statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.77). Patients' satisfaction with pain management in both groups were almost similar (p=0.49). CONCLUSION: The reduction in pain score using IV lidocaine is not superior to IV morphine in adult ED patients with traumatic limb pain.