The Pre-Hospital Initial Fluid Therapy Estimate in Early Nasty Burns (PHIFTEEN B, 15-B) Guideline applied to a retrospective cohort of Intensive Care Unit patients with major burns.

BACKGROUND: Appropriate fluid administration in severe burns is a cornerstone of early burns management. The American Burns Association's (ABA) recommendation is to administer 2 mL-4 mL × burnt Body Surface Area (BSA) × weight in the first 24 h with half administered in the first eight hours. Unfortunately, the calculations involved are complex and clinicians do not estimate the BSA or weight well, which can lead to errors in the amount of fluid administered. To simplify cognitive load to calculate the fluid resuscitation of early burns, the investigators derived the PHIFTEEN B (15-B) guideline. The 15-B guideline estimates the initial hourly fluid for adults ≥ 50 kg to be: 15 mL × BSA (to the nearest 10%) AIMS: To model and determine the accuracy of the 15-B calculated based on the characteristics of a retrospective cohort of patients admitted with ≥ 20% BSA to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) Intensive Care Unit (ICU). METHODS: The 15-B formula was retrospectively calculated on the prehospital BSA estimate on patients admitted to the RBWH ICU. In addition, the 15-B guideline was modelled against a variety of weights and BSAs. The fluid volume was deemed to be clinically significant if it was greater than 250 mL/h outside the ABA's recommendations. RESULTS: The ICU cohort consisted of 107 patients (63.2% male, median age 37 years), with a median ICU estimated BSA of 40% and a median ICU weight estimation of 80 kg. In 43.9% of the cohort, the magnitude of the proportional difference between prehospital and ICU BSA estimate was greater than 25%. The 15-B formula accurately estimated the hourly fluid for all BSA (20%-100%) and weight combinations (50 kg-140 kg) in a BSA- weight matrix. When prehospital BSA estimate was utilized, 15-B guideline accurately estimated the fluid to be given within clinically significant limits for 97.2% of cases. CONCLUSIONS: The 15-B formula is a simple, easy to calculate guideline which approximates the early fluid estimates in severely burned patients despite inaccuracy in prehospital BSA estimates.

Comparison of two emergency response systems and their effect on survival from out of hospital cardiac arrest.

The pre-hospital care provided by emergency response systems will have an effect on the outcome of patients who have sustained an out of hospital cardiac arrest. This study compares the results of resuscitation in two centres, one in the UK (Edinburgh) and the other in the USA (Milwaukee), and examines the demographics in both centres. An overall greater proportion of patients survived to hospital discharge in Edinburgh, 12.4%, compared with 7.2% in Milwaukee (P < 0.01). However patients were more likely to have a witnessed collapse in Edinburgh 65.7%, compared with 25% (P < 0.001) and significantly more of those patients received bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) 42.3%, compared with 27.1% (P < 0.005). When these two effects are accounted for there is no difference in outcome. The importance of early alerting of emergency services and early bystander CPR should not be underestimated.

Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support changes.

Short article that delineates recent changes in Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support. These changes are based on recommendations from the 1992 National Conference on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiac Care (ECC).

[Prognostic factors in resuscitation]. / Facteurs pronostiques en réanimation.

The outcome from intensive care is known to be influenced by such factors as age, previous health status, severity of the disease and diagnosis. In order to assess the influence of each individual factor, 3,687 patients from 38 French intensive care units were studied. For each patient were recorded: age, simplified acute physiological score (SAPS), previous health status, diagnosis, type of intensive care unit (medicine, scheduled or elective surgery) and immediate outcome. Each of these factors was found to influence the immediate survival rate. A multivariate analysis ranked the factors in the following order: SAPS, age, type of intensive care unit and previous health status. Diagnosis played a role in the prognosis since with a 10-15 points SAPS mortality was nil for drug overdose, 12 per cent for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 38 per cent for cardiogenic shock. However, a single diagnosis was made in only 37 per cent of the patients, as against 3 diagnoses in 17 per cent and 4 diagnoses or more in 7 per cent. When the type of intensive care unit was considered, the mean death rate was 20 per cent in medicine, 27 per cent in scheduled surgery and 5 per cent in elective surgery (P less than 0.001). Since this study showed a definite influence of each of the four factors on immediate survival, intensive care patients can be described and classified according to this system. However, it must be stressed that individual prognoses are extremely vague.