[Medical emergencies and sea rescue]. / Urgences médicales et sauvetage en mer.

Military nurses and doctors are on permanent standby to respond to any medical emergency which may arise at sea. This atypical form of practice is part of a specific organisation, in order to provide optimal, high-quality care in the most remote places of the oceans.

Ultrasound to confirm gastric tube placement in prehospital management.

BACKGROUND: In emergency medicine, the gastric tube (GT) has many purposes, however in prehospital settings, the only indication is gastric decompression. To date, there is lack of recommendation on the diagnostic methods to verify correct GT placement in prehospital. The aim of this study is to estimate diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound in confirming gastric tubes placement in a prehospital setting. METHOD: This was a prospective multicentre study conducted in two French towns (Marseille and Grasse) over a one-year period from May 2010 to May 2011. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty patients were included in the study with an M/F sex ratio of 77/53 and a mean age of 55.7±19.8 years. The GT position was confirmed by ultrasound, with direct visualization in the gastric area in 116 of the 130 patients. In 14 cases, the ultrasound failed to visualize the tip of the GT; these results were due in 2 cases to gas interposition and in 12 cases the GT was shown by final X-ray to be located in the end of the oesophagus. Direct visualization by ultrasound thus has a sensitivity of 98.3% [94-99.5] and a specificity of 100% [75.7-100], a positive predictive value of 100% and a negative predictive value of 85.7%, Youden's index of 0.98. GT size affects ultrasound visualization; the larger the GT, the easier it is to see. CONCLUSION: Bedside ultrasound thus appears to constitute an effective and reliable diagnostic procedure for confirming correct gastric tube placement in prehospital settings.

Lung ultrasound associated to capnography to verify correct endotracheal tube positioning in prehospital.

Endotracheal intubation is the "gold standard" of the control of airway patency but is associated with nonnegligible morbidity rates. A rapid detection of esophageal intubation is essential. Capnography is considered the reference technique for correct endotracheal tube (ETT) positioning confirmation. However, capnography can provide false-positive and false-negative results in some situations. Recently, the ultrasound assessment has been studied for confirming ETT placement. Despite of few trials, the ultrasound procedure may enhance physician confidence and decision making in airway management. We report the case of a 52-year-old female patient presenting cardiorespiratory failure. During cardiopulmonary resuscitation, there was a sudden absence of end-tidal CO2 capnographic detection. Correct tube positioning could not be ascertained by auscultation because the environment had become extremely noisy. However, TM-mode (Time Motion--mode) lung ultrasound revealed bilateral pleural sliding during insufflation with the self-filling balloon, thus confirming correct ETT positioning.

Ventricular fibrillation diagnosed with trans-thoracic echocardiography.

Electrocardiographic artifacts on scope are frequently observed in pre-hospital settings. They can lead to misdiagnosis or inappropriate resuscitation treatments. Here we report a case of ventricular fibrillation by electrical injury masked by ECG artifacts, after the savage of a victim, due to persistent 50Hz domestic current and identified by trans-thoracic ultrasonography. No clinical randomized studies define precisely the benefit of such an examination. In cases where ECG analysis is impossible due to artifacts, ultrasonographic exam could be useful to identify ventricular fibrillation. This case underlines also the need for a correct device ECG analysis in any circumstances.

Vasopressin and epinephrine vs. epinephrine alone in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

BACKGROUND: During the administration of advanced cardiac life support for resuscitation from cardiac arrest, a combination of vasopressin and epinephrine may be more effective than epinephrine or vasopressin alone, but evidence is insufficient to make clinical recommendations. METHODS: In a multicenter study, we randomly assigned adults with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest to receive successive injections of either 1 mg of epinephrine and 40 IU of vasopressin or 1 mg of epinephrine and saline placebo, followed by administration of the same combination of study drugs if spontaneous circulation was not restored and subsequently by additional epinephrine if needed. The primary end point was survival to hospital admission; the secondary end points were return of spontaneous circulation, survival to hospital discharge, good neurologic recovery, and 1-year survival. RESULTS: A total of 1442 patients were assigned to receive a combination of epinephrine and vasopressin, and 1452 to receive epinephrine alone. The treatment groups had similar baseline characteristics except that there were more men in the group receiving combination therapy than in the group receiving epinephrine alone (P=0.03). There were no significant differences between the combination-therapy and the epinephrine-only groups in survival to hospital admission (20.7% vs. 21.3%; relative risk of death, 1.01; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.97 to 1.05), return of spontaneous circulation (28.6% vs. 29.5%; relative risk, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.97 to 1.06), survival to hospital discharge (1.7% vs. 2.3%; relative risk, 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.02), 1-year survival (1.3% vs. 2.1%; relative risk, 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.02), or good neurologic recovery at hospital discharge (37.5% vs. 51.5%; relative risk, 1.29; 95% CI, 0.81 to 2.06). CONCLUSIONS: As compared with epinephrine alone, the combination of vasopressin and epinephrine during advanced cardiac life support for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest does not improve outcome. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00127907.)