Paramedic PapersHome Daily scans 8 September 2026
Daily scan
Paramedic research, 8 September 2026
12 new paramedic and prehospital papers from the 8 September 2026 scan.
-
Relatives' needs after failed OHCA resuscitation
Interviews with 15 relatives present at unsuccessful out-of-hospital resuscitations showed their needs shift across three phases — dispatch guidance, help-or-withdraw during resus, then compassionate unhurried communication when efforts stop.
-
Most ECPR-eligible London OHCAs can't reach ECMO in time
Geospatial analysis of five years of London Ambulance Service OHCA data — of 776 patients meeting ECPR eligibility criteria, only 3% could reach an ECMO-capable centre within the 45-minute target, and stretching it to 60 minutes would lift access by 217%.
-
Fentanyl in prehospital RSI for TBI linked to lower mortality
In 423 TBI patients intubated by a Finnish HEMS unit, fentanyl as an anaesthetic adjuvant was associated with lower mortality (OR 0.38), though selection bias can't be excluded.
-
Women post-OHCA get less angiography
Nationwide Swedish cohort of 8,641 post-OHCA admissions — women were less likely to undergo coronary angiography and PCI than men, yet intervention rates were even once angiographic findings were accounted for, and a third of angiographed women without shockable rhythm or ST elevation had significant coronary disease.
-
Ramping driven by hospital 'back door'
A mixed-methods Queensland study of six years of ambulance and hospital records found access block is largely a hospital discharge ('back door') problem, with recommendations spanning discharge metrics, primary care support and prehospital flow.
-
Predicting who needs prehospital blood
Retrospective cohort of 25,473 EMS-transported trauma patients in Los Angeles County — of those meeting prehospital blood transfusion criteria, 52% received blood within four hours, with SBP <90 mmHg and HR ≥110 bpm the best predictors of emergent transfusion.
-
Ventilation feedback devices inaccurate during CPR
Simulation cross-over study of two commercial ventilation feedback devices used during continuous compressions with asynchronous ventilations — both were clinically inaccurate, one displaying 111 breaths/min when the true rate was 12 and underestimating tidal volume by up to 440 mL in reversed airflow.
-
Admission hypocalcaemia predicts trauma mortality
Multicentre trauma-registry cohort of 977 severely injured patients — admission hypocalcaemia was independently associated with hospital mortality and trauma-induced coagulopathy, while apparently elevated ionised calcium mostly reflected profound acidosis.
-
Double-click metronome preserves CPR quality
Secondary analysis of 477 volunteers in prolonged manikin CPR — compression depth and chest recoil decayed within minutes, and a double-click metronome with separate compression and release cues preserved quality significantly longer than a standard metronome.
-
LVOT VTI unreliable for mild hypovolaemia
Prospective study measuring LVOT VTI in 63 volunteers before and after donating about 6–7 mL/kg of blood — VTI fell 11.5% on average but with marked inter-individual variability, so it can't reliably flag mild hypovolaemia on its own.
-
ED volume not linked to mortality
Cohort of 724,256 ED presentations across Dutch and Danish hospitals — annual ED volume had no association with in-hospital mortality, while mortality was lower on busier days, driven by excess deaths on quiet ones.
-
AI predicts ED admitting team from triage notes
Sydney single-centre deep learning study of 40,054 admitted ED patients — a fine-tuned clinical language model predicted the inpatient admitting specialty from triage notes with AUROC 0.97, though precision was a moderate 0.71.