Carbon monoxide: raising awareness of the silent killer in the emergency department.

Background Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odourless gas produced by the incomplete combustion of carbon containing materials. CO poisoning causes a range of symptoms of which headache is the most common, occurring in up to 90% of patients. An audit in the Emergency Department at University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool, UK found a lack of clinical awareness among healthcare professionals (HCPs) with CO exposure being considered in only 0.8% of patients presenting with non-traumatic headache. This Quality Improvement Project (QIP) aimed to increase this consideration to 50% of presentations. Methods Three separate sequential Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) cycles were instigated. Interventions involved verbal reminders to frontline HCPs (cycle 1), using strategically placed CO posters (cycle 2) and finally designing and introducing a CO sticker education scheme (cycle 3). These stickers, highlighting the approved CO COMA acronym, were placed in patient notes to serve as a physical reminder for HCPs when seeing patients. Rapid cycle sequencing was used with each cycle lasting 2 weeks. Patient notes were analysed for evidence that the HCP considered a diagnosis of CO. Results An average of 61 patients were included in each PDSA cycle. Given baseline findings, each cycle demonstrated positive results with CO awareness being considered in 1.7% and 10.0% of patients with non-traumatic headache following cycles 1 and 2, respectively. The final PDSA cycle demonstrated significant increase in consideration of CO to 42.1% of non-traumatic headache presentations. Conclusion This QIP demonstrated that even small interventions can lead to significant change in awareness of CO exposure. Implementation of a CO sticker education scheme is a feasible way of increasing awareness among emergency care professionals and serves as a low-cost, easy to use, transferable and sustainable solution to address the lack of CO awareness in acute emergency settings. Importantly, this serves to promote improved patient safety

Recurrent croup is a good indicator of underlying paediatric airway issues: A 10-year retrospective cohort study of airway endoscopy

Objective Children with a history of recurrent croup alert the ENT clinician to the potential for underlying laryngotracheal pathology. There is equipoise about the likelihood of identifying any underlying structural issues or subglottic stenosis in those children who undergo airway assessment. Methods A retrospective cohort study in a tertiary UK paediatric hospital of a decade of children with recurrent croup who underwent a rigid laryngo-tracheo-bronchoscopy (airway endoscopy). Main Outcome(s) airway pathology seen on endoscopy and need for further airway surgery. Results In ten years, 139 children underwent airway endoscopy for recurrent croup. Operative findings were abnormal in 62 (45 %) cases. Twelve cases (9%) had subglottic stenosis. Although recurrent croup was more common in males (78% of cases), this was not found to predispose them to operative findings. Children with previous intubations had >2 times the risk of abnormal findings and children born prematurely (<37 wks) had a trend towards abnormal operative findings versus children with no airway findings in our cohort. Even in those patients with abnormal findings, none necessitated further airway surgery. Conclusions Surgeons and parents can be reassured that rigid airway endoscopy for children with recurrent croup demonstrated high diagnostic utility but will rarely lead to further surgical intervention. Greater understanding about recurrent croup may require consensus clarification about definitions of recurrent croup and/or a universal adoption of a minimum standard operative record or grading system after rigid endoscopy for recurrent croup

Dapagliflozin for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus - an update.

IntroductionDiabetes is a global health concern with a prevalence of 463 million people. Importantly, despite the availability of numerous antidiabetic medications, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is still associated with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. One particular drug of interest is dapagliflozin, a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor that is commonly used in the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM).Areas coveredThis review outlines the current use and pharmacology of dapagliflozin, with a specific focus on recent evidence regarding benefits in patients with cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease. The article includes an overview of the efficacy and safety of this drug and provides the reader with the expert opinion and perspectives of the authors.Expert opinionIncreasing evidence of the beneficial effects on morbidity and mortality in patients with Type 2 diabetes and concurrent heart failure, acute MI and renal failure are likely to see the usage of dapagliflozin in patients with these comorbidities increase over the next 5 years