Risk of wound infection with use of sterile versus clean gloves in wound repair at the Emergency Department: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Sterile gloves are widely used during wound repair procedures in Emergency Departments (ED) worldwide. It is unclear whether sterile gloves protect against postoperative wound infections. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine if sterile gloves offer significant protection against wound infections compared to clean gloves for wound repair in the ED. METHODS: Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, Cochrane Library and Web Of Science were searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or non-randomized studies of intervention (NRSIs) from their dates of inception to January 2023. RCTs or NRSIs comparing sterile (control) vs. clean/no (intervention) glove use for wound repair procedures in the ED and reporting postoperative wound infections were included. Two investigators independently extracted data and assessed risk-of-bias of each report on a standardised form. Wound infection incidence was pooled using a random effects model. Subgroup analysis was performed to explore heterogeneity. RESULTS: 7 studies were included in the review, with 6 included in the meta-analysis. Of 3227 patients, 115/1608 (7.2%) patients in the intervention group and 135/1619 (8.3%) patients in the control group had postoperative wound infections. Overall RR was 0.86 (95% CI,0.67-1.10, I2=3.6%), and of high evidence certainty (GRADE). Absence of a protective effect was invariant in sensitivity analyses, leave-one-out analysis and subgroup analyses. CONCLUSION: No evidence of additional protection against wound infections with the use of sterile gloves for wound repair in the ED compared to clean gloves was found. However, the review was limited by nonreporting of antibiotic history and time between wound repair and follow-up amongst included studies. Considering the ergonomics, potential cost-savings and environmental impact, clean gloves are a viable alternative to sterile gloves, without compromising wound infection risk in this setting.

Ambient Air Quality and Emergency Hospital Admissions in Singapore: A Time-Series Analysis.

Air pollution exposure may increase the demand for emergency healthcare services, particularly in South-East Asia, where the burden of air-pollution-related health impacts is high. This article aims to investigate the association between air quality and emergency hospital admissions in Singapore. Quasi-Poisson regression was applied with a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) to assess the short-term associations between air quality variations and all-cause, emergency admissions from a major hospital in Singapore, between 2009 and 2017. Higher concentrations of SO2, PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and CO were positively associated with an increased risk of (i) all-cause, (ii) cardiovascular-related, and (iii) respiratory-related emergency admissions over 7 days. O3 concentration increases were associated with a non-linear decrease in emergency admissions. Females experienced a higher risk of emergency admissions associated with PM2.5, PM10, and CO exposure, and a lower risk of admissions with NO2 exposure, compared to males. The older adults (≥65 years) experienced a higher risk of emergency admissions associated with SO2 and O3 exposure compared to the non-elderly group. We found significant positive associations between respiratory disease- and cardiovascular disease-related emergency hospital admissions and ambient SO2, PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and CO concentrations. Age and gender were identified as effect modifiers of all-cause admissions.

Extracorporeal life support in adult patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

The use of extracorporeal life support in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) of adult patients experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by the application of veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) during cardiac arrest has been increasing over the past decade. This can be attributed to the encouraging results of extracorporeal CPR (ECPR) in multiple observational studies. To date, only one randomised controlled trial has compared ECPR to conventional advanced life support measures. Patient selection is crucial for the success of ECPR programmes. A rapid and organised approach is required for resuscitation, i.e. cannula insertion with ECMO pump initiation in combination with other aspects of post-cardiac arrest care such as targeted temperature management and early coronary reperfusion. The provision of an ECPR service can be costly, resource intensive and technically challenging, as limited studies have reported on its cost-effectiveness.