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Paramedic research, 17 September 2026

4 new paramedic and prehospital papers from the 17 September 2026 scan.

• Fluids in traumatic cardiac arrest: rat model

  Resuscitation Plus · Other · Hypothesis-generating

  Rat model of traumatic cardiac arrest (30% haemorrhage plus asphyxia) comparing four fluids after ROSC found 96-hour survival of 90% with whole blood, 80% with HES, 60% with lactated Ringer's and just 30% with normal saline — crystalloids prolonged survival without improving haemodynamics.

• LLMs unreliable for cath-lab activation ECGs

  Heart & Lung · Other · Context only

  Retrospective test of three multimodal LLMs against real cardiology cath-lab activation decisions on 615 prehospital ECGs found the best (Gemini, 95.3% sensitivity) had 9.4% specificity, and the standard ECG machine algorithm beat all three LLMs overall — general-purpose LLMs aren't reliable for STEMI pathway activation.

• Best height for standing compressions

  Resuscitation Plus · Simulation · Hypothesis-generating

  Simulation study with 30 participants compressing at seven working heights found knee-height bed or stretcher position gave the best compressions (52.7 mm mean depth, 80.6% correct depth), with positions 15–20 cm above knee height significantly worse.

• Hot debrief tool in metropolitan EDs

  Emergency Medicine Australasia · Other · Hypothesis-generating

  Multi-site Australian quality improvement study of a structured hot debrief tool after critical events (46 debriefs across two metropolitan EDs) found 98% of attendees rated it psychologically safe and 59 of 60 found it useful, with themes surfacing system issues like medication dosing in rare events and staff safety during behavioural emergencies.