Knowledge, Attidue and Practice of Advanced Trauma Life Suppoort (ATLS) Protocol among House-Officers in Khartoum State Hospitals, Sudan, 2023.

BACKGROUND: Advanced Trauma Life Support was originated mainly to train doctors who don't manage trauma on a regular basis, including junior doctors as it prepares them more efficiently and effectively for treating and managing trauma patients. This study was conducted to study knowledge, attitude and practice of advanced trauma life support protocol among house-officers in Khartoum state hospitals, Sudan 2023. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional descriptive health facility based study conducted in Bahri Teaching Hospital, Omdurman Teaching Hospital and Ibrahim Malik teaching hospital, Khartoum state, Sudan. Data of 151 House-officers of all nationality working in Khartoum state hospitals was collected using a simple random technique, filling questionnaire that was designed especially for this study. Comparison between different variables by Chi-square test and statistical significance difference at P value < 0.05 was done. RESULT: A total of 151 house officers were included in the study. 49% aged between 20 and 25 years, females were the majority 56.3%. About 41.1% have took ATLS course before. 55.21% of the study participants didn't take the course because it was not available, while 35.42% because it was expensive and 29.17% referred it to their busy lifestyle. 91% of the study population think that ATLS course should be compulsory and 85% think that the ATLS protocol should be recommended to both junior and senior doctors. 77% of the study participants stated that their seniors teaching skills affect how they apply ATLS. CONCLUSION: Overall junior doctors at Khartoum state hospitals demonstrated a positive attitude towards ATLS, but they showed poor knowledge regarding the topic. It's advised that an earlier training program is introduced by incorporating ATLS course to be part of all final year medical school's curriculum.

NATIONAL DIAGNOSTIC REFERENCE LEVELS AND ACHIEVABLE DOSES FOR STANDARD CT EXAMINATIONS IN SUDAN.

Radiation doses were determined to propose national diagnostic reference levels (NDRLs) and achievable doses (ADs) for computed tomography (CT) examinations in Sudan. Doses were estimated from retrospectively collected scan parameters for 1336 CT examinations of adult patients from 14 Sudanese hospitals using CT Expo 2.5 software. ADs and NDRLs were set at the 50th and 75th percentile of the hospital median dose distribution, respectively. The proposed CTDIvol (mGy) ADs ranged from: 10 (chest) to 64 (head), and that of the dose-length product (DLP; mGy.cm) ranged from 366 (chest) to 1225 (head). The proposed CTDIvol (mGy) NDRLs ranged from 15 kidney-ureter-bladder (KUB) to 79 (head), whereas that of the DLP (mGy.cm) ranged from 690 (chest) to 1490 (head). Current doses fell within the upper range of the doses presented in the literature emphasizing the need for implementation of the current ADs and NDRLs for CT to enhance patient protection and dose optimization in Sudan.