dr-exmedic.com

A group out in Seattle did a nice study on the use of needle chest decompression within their patient population.  It was not entirely surprising that they found the procedure rare (39 cases out of more than 20,000 searched through).  It wasn’t even particularly surprising that they found four “unexpected survivors” (although they couldn’t track those four to hospital discharge, so who knows how well they actually did).

What I found most surprising is that they found one case of intracardiac placement of the needle.  They don’t specify whether the medic putting the needle in really screwed up, or the patient had very unusual anatomy, and I would really love to know that answer.

Filed under: EMS Research