Association between prehospital lactate categories with short- and long-term mortality: a prospective, observational multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Lactate is an already recognized biomarker for short-term mortality in emergency medical services (EMS). However, how different levels of lactate are associated with short-, mid- and long-term outcomes should be unveiled. AIM: To determine how different categories of hyperlactatemia are associated with mortality. We also aim to clinically characterize hyperlactatemia groups. DESIGN: A multicenter, prospective, observational study performed between January 2019 and February 2022, considering 48 basic life support units and 5 advanced life support units referring to 4 tertiary care hospitals (Spain). Patients were recruited from phone requests for emergency assistance in adults, evacuated to emergency departments. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality from any cause within the first to the 365-day period following EMS attendance. The main measures were demographical and biochemical variables, prehospital advanced life support techniques used and patient condition categorized in 24 diseases. METHODS: Univariate and Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: A total of 5072 participants fulfilled inclusion criteria. Group #1 (non-hyperlactatemia) was composed of 2389 subjects (47.1%), Group #2 (mild hyperlactatemia) of 1834 (36.1%), Group #3 (hyperlactatemia) of 333 (6.6%) and, finally, Group #4 (severe hyperlactatemia) of 516 (10.2%). The 1-day mortality was 0.2%, 1.1%, 9% and 22.3% in the four lactate groups, respectively. Long-term mortality (365 days) was 10.2%, 22.7%, 38.7% and 46.7% in the four lactate groups, respectively. Differences between patients' conditions of lactatemia groups were also found. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated that prehospital lactate categories were associated with short- and long-term outcomes in a different manner. These results will allow EMS to establish different risk states according to the prehospital lactate categories.

[Current situation of sepsis care in Spanish emergency departments]. / Mapa de la situación actual de la atención a la sepsis en los servicios de urgencias españoles.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the approach to the patients with suspected sepsis in the Spanish emergency department hospitals (ED) and analyze whether there are differences according to the size of the hospital and the number of visits to the emergency room. METHODS: Structured survey of those responsible for the 282 public EDs that serve adults 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It was asked about assistance and management in the emergency room in the care of patients with suspected sepsis. The results are compared according to hospital size (large ≥ 500 beds vs medium-small <500) and influx to the emergency room (discharge ≥ 200 visits / day vs medium-low <200). RESULTS: A total of 250 Spanish EDs responded (89%). Sepsis protocols are available in 163 (65%) EDs median weekly sepsis treated ranged from 0-5 per week in 39 (71%) ED, 6-10 per week in 10 (18%), 11-15 per week in 4 (7%), and more than 15 activations per week in 3 centers (3.6%). The criteria used for sepsis diagnosis were the qSOFA/SOFA in 105 (63.6%) of the hospitals, SIRS in 6 (3.6%), while in 49 (29.7%) they used both criteria simultaneously. In 79 centers, the sepsis diagnosis was computerized, and in 56 there were tools to help decision-making. 48% (79 of 163) of the EDs had data on bundles compliance. In 61% (99 of 163) of EDs there was training in sepsis and in 56% (55 of 99) it was periodic. Considering the size of the hospital, large hospitals participated more frequently as recipients of patients with sepsis and had an infectious, sepsis and short-stay unit, a microbiologist and infectious disease specialist on duty. CONCLUSIONS: Most EDs have sepsis protocols, but there is room for improvement. The computerization and development of alerts for diagnosis and treatment still have a long way to go in EDs.

Situación actual de la atención a las enfermedades emergentes en los servicios de urgencias hospitalarias españoles / Current status of medical care of emerging infectious diseases at hospital emergency services in Spain

Fundamento: Conocer la situación organizativa de los hospitales españoles de cara a facilitar la atención adecuadaen los servicios de urgencias (SUH) de los pacientes queacudan con sospecha de infecciones de origen tropical. Método: Estudio descriptivo transversal mediante cuestionario en formato Google Forms® enviado a los miembros delgrupo de INFURG-SEMES. Se estudiaron variables como eltamaño del hospital a través del número de camas, el númerode urgencias de patología tropical, la existencia de protocolos de medicina tropical, de pruebas diagnósticas urgentes otratamiento antimalárico. Resultados: Se envió el formulario a 75 hospitales, obteniendo respuesta de 42 servicios de urgencias (55%), pertenecientes a 10 comunidades autónomas. Veinticuatro (57,1%)tenían más de 500 camas. Solo cinco hospitales (11,9%) podían diagnosticar malaria y dengue las 24 horas. En 19 hospitales (45,3%) no existía ningún protocolo de enfermedadtropical. En siete hospitales (16,7%) se realizaban diez o másasistencias/día. En los hospitales de mayor tamaño era másfrecuente la existencia de un servicio de enfermedades infecciosas independiente del servicio de Medicina Interna, unaunidad de medicina tropical, un infectólogo de guardia y unmicrobiólogo de guardia. No existen diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre los hospitales de mayor y menortamaño en cuanto a la capacidad para realizar diagnósticos otratamiento adecuados durante las 24 horas. Conclusiones: La atención de la patología importada supone un volumen no despreciable de consultas en los SUH,donde en general, se observa una ausencia de protocolosespecíficos, en especial, el protocolo específico de malaria,así como de escasa disponibilidad de prueba diagnósticaurgente de malaria.(AU)

Background: The aim of this study is to determine the current status of Spanish Hospital Emergency Services (HES) indiagnosing and treating the most prevalent tropical diseases (TD) in Spain. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carriedout, using a questionnaire in Google Forms® sent to members of the INFURG-SEMES group. The following variableswere analyzed: the size of the hospital in terms of numberof beds, number of tropical disease emergencies, existenceof tropical medicine protocols, urgent diagnostic tests orantimalarial treatment. Results: The form was sent to 75 hospitals. Responses wereobtained from 42 emergency services (55%) in 10 Autonomous Communities. Twenty-four (57.1%) had >500 beds.Only five hospitals (11.9%) have the facilities to diagnosemalaria and dengue 24 hours a day. There was no tropicaldisease protocol in 19 (45.3%) hospitals. Seven (16.7%)hospitals had ≥ 10 attendances/day. Larger hospitals weremore likely to have an infectious disease unit independentfrom Internal Medicine service, along with a tropical medicine unit, and an on-call infectious disease specialist andmicrobiologist. There are no statistically significant differences between larger and smaller hospitals in terms of theircapacity to carry out appropriate diagnoses or treatmentsin 24 hours. Conclusion: Care and treatment of emerging diseases arenow a sizeable percentage of the consultations at an HES.Such units generally lack specific protocols, particularly formalaria. Urgent diagnostic testing for malaria is also needed.(AU)

[Current status of medical care of emerging infectious diseases at hospital emergency services in Spain].

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to determine the current status of Spanish Hospital Emergency Services (HES) in diagnosing and treating the most prevalent tropical diseases (TD) in Spain. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out, using a questionnaire in Google Forms® sent to members of the INFURG-SEMES group. The following variables were analyzed: the size of the hospital in terms of number of beds, number of tropical disease emergencies, existence of tropical medicine protocols, urgent diagnostic tests or antimalarial treatment. RESULTS: The form was sent to 75 hospitals. Responses were obtained from 42 emergency services (55%) in 10 Autonomous Communities. Twenty-four (57.1%) had >500 beds. Only five hospitals (11.9%) have the facilities to diagnose malaria and dengue 24 hours a day. There was no tropical disease protocol in 19 (45.3%) hospitals. Seven (16.7%) hospitals had =?10 attendances/day. Larger hospitals were more likely to have an infectious disease unit independent from Internal Medicine service, along with a tropical medicine unit, and an on-call infectious disease specialist and microbiologist. There are no statistically significant differences between larger and smaller hospitals in terms of their capacity to carry out appropri-ate diagnoses or treatments in 24 hours. CONCLUSION: Care and treatment of emerging diseases are now a sizeable percentage of the consultations at an HES. Such units generally lack specific protocols, particularly for malaria. Urgent diagnostic testing for malaria is also needed.

[Analysis of the demand for detection of SARSCoV-2 in a health area of Spain]. / Análisis de la demanda de detección de SARS-CoV-2 en un área de salud de España.

OBJECTIVE: Since the discovery of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the polymerase chain reaction technique (RT-PCR) has become the fundamental method for diagnosing the disease in its acute phase. The objective is to describe the demand-based series of RT-PCR determinations received at a Microbiology Service at a third-level reference hospital for a health area for three months spanning from the onset of the epidemic by SARS-CoV-2. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of the total of the RT-PCR requested in the Microbiology Service analyzed from 02/25/2020 to 05/26/2020 (90 days) has been carried out. They have been grouped by epidemiological weeks and by the petitioner service. A descriptive analysis was carried out by age, gender and number of requests for each patient. In the tests carried out, a confidence level of 95% (p <0.05) was considered significant. RESULTS: A total of 27,106 requests was received corresponding to 22,037 patients. Median age 53.7 (RIC 40.9-71.7) years, women: 61.3%. Proportion of patients with any positive RT-PCR: 14%. Of the total requests for RT-PCR, positive 3,710. Week 13 had the highest diagnosis performance (39.0%). The primary care has been the service thar has made the most requests (15,953). Patients with 3 or more RT-PCR: 565, of them, 19 patients had a positive result after previously having a negative one. CONCLUSIONS: Requests have been increasing depending on the evolution of the epidemic. The RT-PCR has a high diagnostic performance in the phases of highest contagiousness and / or transmissibility of the virus.

[Assessment of the severity scores in patients included in a sepsis code in an Emergency Departament]. / Valoración de escalas de gravedad en pacientes incluidos en un código sepsis en un servicio de urgencias hospitalario.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study is to determine the usefulness of the SOFA (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment), quick SOFA (qSOFA), LODS (Logistic Organ Dysfunction System) and EWS (Early Warning Score) scores to predict in-hospital mortality among septic patients attended in the emergency department; to evaluate what factors are associated with mortality; and develop a predictive model of in-hospital mortality. METHODS: Retrospective study including patients over 14 years of age included in the sepsis code of an Emergency Department of a University Hospital between November 2013 and September 2015. Demographic variables, hemodynamic and analytical variables, and in-hospital mortality were collected to obtain qSOFA, SOFA, LODS, EWS scores. Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed for each score. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the probability of in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: A total of 349 patients were analyzed, median age 72.7 (range 86), males: 54.4%. The in-hospital mortality was 21.8%. AUC obtained: LODS: 0.73 (IC 95% 0.67-0.80; p<0.001), EWS: 0.73 (IC 95% 0.65-0.81; p<0.001), SOFA: 0.72 (IC 95% 0.65- 0.78; p<0.001), qSOFA: 0.67 (IC 95% 0.58-0.76; p<0.001). After the multivariate analysis, these were the independent factors associated with in-hospital mortality: Oxygen saturation ≤92%, Glasgow coma score <14, lactate ≥2mmol/L (p<0.05). Two prognostic models were generated: MPRO1: age, oxygen saturation ≤92% and Glasgow coma score <14, AUC: 0.78 (IC 95% 0.72-0.84; p<0.001) and MPRO2 formed by the previous ones and lactate ≥2mmol/L, AUC: 0.82 (IC 95% 0.76-0.87; p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: SOFA score and the new developed scores could be useful in asses the risk of in-hospital mortality in patients included in the sepsis code.

Burnout en médicos residentes de dos áreas de salud de una misma ciudad / Burnout in medical residents in two health districts of the same city

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Marcadores pronósticos precoces en el paciente infectado / No disponible

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Disnea, tos y masa pulmonar / Eighty-five year old male patient with a subcutaneous mass in the right costal area

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