There is uncertainty around the types of interventions that are provided by emergency medical services (EMS) to children during prehospital transport. We describe the patient characteristics, events, interventions provided and outcomes of a cohort of children transported by EMS.

This prospective cohort study was conducted in a city of 750 000 people with a 2-tiered EMS system. All children <16 years of age who were attended by EMS during a 6-month period were enrolled. Data were extracted from ambulance call reports and hospital charts, and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

During the study period there were 1377 pediatric EMS calls. Mean age was 8.2 years (standard deviation 5.4), and the most common diagnoses were trauma (44.9%), seizure (11.8%) and respiratory distress (8.8%). The ambulance return code was Urgent in 7%, Prompt in 57%, Deferrable in 8% and Not Transported in 28%. Fifty-six percent received either an Advanced Life Support or Basic Life Support prehospital intervention. Common procedures included cardiac monitoring (20.0%), oxygen administration (19.8%), blood glucose monitoring (16.3%), spine board (12.2%), limb immobilization (11.1%) and cervical collar (10.0%). Uncommon procedures included administering medications intravenously (IV) (1.4%), bag-valve-mask ventilation (0.3%) and endotracheal intubation (0.1%). Seventy-eight percent of attempted IV lines were successful. Only 9.0% of EMS-transported children were admitted to hospital, and 2.2% were admitted to the intensive care unit.

This first study of Canadian pediatric prehospital interventions shows a high rate of non-transport, and a low rate of Urgent transports and hospital admissions for children. Very few children receive prehospital airway management, ventilation or IV medications; consequently EMS personnel have little opportunity to maintain these pediatric skills in the field.

Accurate prediction of survival to hospital discharge in patients who achieve return of spontaneous circulation after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has significant ethical and socioeconomic implications. We investigated the prognostic performance of serum neuron-specific enolase (NSE), a biochemical marker of ischemic brain injury, after successful CPR.

In-hospital or out-of-hospital patients with nontraumatic normothermic cardiac arrest who achieved return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) following at least 5 minutes of CPR were eligible. Neuron-specific enolase levels were assessed immediately, 6 hours, 12 hours and 2 days after ROSC. Subjects were followed to death or hospital discharge.

Seventeen patients (7 men, 10 women) were enrolled during a 1-year period. Median (range) NSE levels in survivors and non-survivors respectively were as follows: immediately after ROSC: 14.0 μg/L (9.1–51.4 μg/L) versus 25.9 μg/L (10.2–57.5 μg/L); 6 hours after ROSC: 15.2 μg/L (9.7–30.8 μg/L) versus 25.6 μg/L (12.7–38.2 μg/L); 12 hours after ROSC: 14.0 μg/L (8.6–32.4 μg/L) versus 28.5 μg/L (11.0–50.7 μg/L); and 48 hours after ROSC: 13.1 μg/L (7.8–29.5 μg/L) versus 52.0 μg/L (29.1–254.0 μg/L). Non-survivors had significantly higher NSE levels 48 hours after ROSC than surivors (p = 0.04) and showed a trend toward higher values during the entire time course following ROSC. An NSE concentration of >30 μg/L 48 hours after ROSC predicted death with a high specificity (100%: 95% confidence interval [CI] 85%–100%), and a level of 29 μg/L or less at 48 hours predicted survival with a high specificity (100%: 95% CI 83%–100%).

Serum NSE levels may have clinical utility for the prediction of survival to hospital discharge in patients after ROSC following CPR over 5 minutes in duration. This study is small, and our results are limited by wide confidence intervals. Further research on ability of NSE to facilitate prediction and clinical decision-making after cardiac arrest is warranted.

In 2004, the format of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada certification exam in Emergency Medicine was modified to include an audiovisual session. Residents' performance on such stimuli is unknown. This study aims to determine the performance of Emergency Medicine postgraduate year 5 (PGY-5) on a novel practice examination using visual stimuli, in an effort to guide residents' preparatory study, and to help educators focus the teaching related to visual stimuli.

In this prospective observational study, 30 PGY-5 residents from 12 Emergency Medicine programs across Canada participated in a practice examination in which they had to answer 133 questions related to 80 visual stimuli. The stimuli included electrocardiograms, medical imaging and clinical photographs. Three experienced faculty provided “reference standard” answers for the visual stimuli. For analysis purpose, stimuli were classified into 9 clinical domains, outlined in The Model of the Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine.

Insufficient question numbers in 3 domains prevented reliable inferences. Correct answers were given for 65% of remaining questions, with the following domain distribution: 69% respiratory, 64% trauma, 73% cardiovascular, 62% head–eyes–ears–nose–throat (HEENT), 63% musculoskeletal and 69% cutaneous. Seventy-four percent of ECGs, 64% of imaging, and 62% of photograph-related questions were answered correctly. Incorrect answers were related to a lack of knowledge as well as imprecise or incomplete responses.

PGY-5 subjects scored lowest in the HEENT and musculoskeletal domains. Medical educators should emphasize these domains in their teaching, and insist on precision and completeness of answers.