Overview of current implementation and limitations of point-of-care ultrasound in the emergency department: a nationwide survey in Belgium.

Objective: Giving an overview of the current implementation and limitations of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in Belgian Emergency Departments (EDs).

Methods: A survey, consisting of questions regarding demographics, practice patterns, policies, difficulties of implementing ultrasound (US) and training of emergency physicians was sent out to all Belgian EDs (n = 109).

Results: Seventy-two percent of all the EDs responded.

Awareness and willingness to perform CPR: a survey amongst Flemish schoolchildren, teachers and principals.

Objectives: Training children in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is one of the strategies to increase bystander CPR in society. Reinforcing knowledge and awareness and increasing willingness to perform bystander CPR contributes to a better outcome after cardiac arrest. We questioned schoolchildren, teachers and principals about their awareness of the importance of CPR and about their willingness to perform CPR.

Pneumomediastinum revisited: we should reconsider usual classification.

Pneumomediastinum work-up should focus on differentiating mediastinal organ injuries from alveolar rupture since these two causative mechanisms have a different management and prognosis. After an admission at our Emergency Department, we wanted to challenge the current classification into 'spontaneous' or 'secondary' pneumomediastinum, which reflects the clinical rather than the pathophysiological circumstances and is therefore confusing and inappropriate to our view. We propose a new work-up algorithm based on clinical risks factors and chest CT findings.

Patients with cardiac arrest are ventilated two times faster than guidelines recommend: an observational prehospital study using tracheal pressure measurement.

Aim: To measure ventilation rate using tracheal airway pressures in prehospitally intubated patients with and without cardiac arrest.

Methods: Prospective observational study. In 98 patients (57 with and 41 without cardiac arrest) an air-filled catheter was inserted into the endotracheal tube and connected to a custom-made portable device allowing tracheal airway pressure recording and subsequent calculation of ventilation rate.