Comprehensive Decision Support for Prehospital Combat Casualty Care: The Airway Clearance Model.

Airway management is a foremost priority for combat medics treating battlefield casualties, as a compromised airway is the second leading cause of potentially survivable death on the battlefield, accounting for 1 in 10 preventable combat deaths. Effective suction is a critical component of airway clearance. However, currently available commercial devices are too heavy and bulky for combat medics to carry, and/or lack sufficient power to be useful.

More sophisticated than a drink cooler or an old sphygmomanometer but still not adequate for prehospital blood: A market review of commercially available equipment for prehospital blood transport and administration.

Background: Hemorrhage is the leading cause of death in trauma patients with most fatalities occurring before reaching a higher level of care-this applies to both the civilian setting and the military combat setting. Hemostatic resuscitation with increased emphasis on blood transfusion while limiting use of crystalloids has become routine in trauma care. However, the prehospital setting-especially in combat-presents unique challenges with regard to storage, transport, and administration.

Relative vs. absolute values: using patient and population norms for echocardiography in pediatric cardiac transplant recipients.

Intrapatient consistency and relative utility of TDI as well as other echocardiographic parameters are incompletely understood in pediatric HTx recipients. We sought to evaluate the relative strength of common echocardiographic parameters used in the evaluation of pediatric HTx recipients, including TDI. We reviewed 388 echocardiograms and 73 catheterizations from 34 pediatric HTx recipients without coronary disease over an 18-month period.