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EMS CT scanner?


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The bedside ones we use in the ER are about the size of a laptop but come on a portable stand that has a lot of extra bells and whistles which makes them look much bigger.

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It's not a CT scanner. It uses infrared and near infrared light to identify possible blood consolidations following traumatic injury. It's utility in this setting will be tested in time, so I cannot comment on its efficacy as of yet, but it's promising and may be of use in special situations. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it can identify intraventricular consolidations or perhaps subarachnoid bleeding in certain areas, so it's utility in identifying ischaemic stroke versus hemorrhagic stroke is probably limited.

STEMI's are being treated in some areas with prehospital fibrinolytics but I'm not sure what the data says about these services and the other countries where it occurs more often.

In NZ we are using prehospital fibrinolytics to thrombolyse STEMI patients. Mainly used in rural areas with time to hospital is greater but one metro service uses it as well.

Edited by HarryM
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We were looking at getting a small portable ultrasound machine for the ambulances; I've heard that it can be used also for detecting ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes, not sure the details about it though.

What training are you planning on getting to run that ultrasound machine? I'm curious not argumentative.

Will the hospitals trust a paramedic's reading of a portable ultrasound in the field when they often do not trust them with their 12 lead interpretations.

Do you really need a ultrasound in your ambluance and what will it be used for?

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It's not a CT scanner. It uses infrared and near infrared light to identify possible blood consolidations following traumatic injury. It's utility in this setting will be tested in time, so I cannot comment on its efficacy as of yet, but it's promising and may be of use in special situations. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it can identify intraventricular consolidations or perhaps subarachnoid bleeding in certain areas, so it's utility in identifying ischaemic stroke versus hemorrhagic stroke is probably limited.

STEMI's are being treated in some areas with prehospital fibrinolytics but I'm not sure what the data says about these services and the other countries where it occurs more often.

As soon as the online guidelines are updated i will link it, but the draft is out and our ICP's (and me at some stage :D) will be managing STEMI's wiht tenecteplase, heparin and clopidigrel without physician consultation

Doc, whats the technique for measuring changes in the diameter of the optic nerve with ultrasound, and is it able to distinguish haemorrhagic from ischaemic CVA?

Non physician ultrasound in EMS i think is limited to FAST exams and pneumothorax identification in Australia.

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What training are you planning on getting to run that ultrasound machine? I'm curious not argumentative.

Will the hospitals trust a paramedic's reading of a portable ultrasound in the field when they often do not trust them with their 12 lead interpretations.

Do you really need a ultrasound in your ambluance and what will it be used for?

I honestly don't know what training they are planning on doing.

While it would be nice to say that the hospitals will trust our interpretation, honestly just like 12 leads they probably will not and will still do their own exams. For us it would be useful in destination decisions, and if a patient needs to be flown to the big city. Also at a recent training I learned that the ultra sound can be used to determine if the patient is hypotensive due to low volume, or poor cardiac output (helping determine if pressers or fluids should be given).

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