Randomised controlled trial comparing intraoperative cell salvage and autotransfusion with standard care in the treatment of hip fractures: a protocol for the WHITE 9 study.

Introduction: People who sustain a hip fracture are typically elderly, frail and require urgent surgery. Hip fracture and the urgent surgery is associated with acute blood loss, compounding patients' pre-existing comorbidities including anaemia. Approximately 30% of patients require a donor blood transfusion in the perioperative period.

An injured climber.

Climbing incidents present a myriad of challenges to prehospital teams. Management decisions are often influenced by factors including difficulties in accessing patients, limited available resources and safe egress from scenes. This case illustrates the importance of an adaptable and innovative approach to scene management and clinical decision making in such cases.

A stroke in the woods.

Responding to incidents where access by conventional land-based ambulance assets is limited is an important facet of helicopter emergency medical services operations in rural areas. Often in such cases extra resources must be utilised to enable access to patients and facilitate egress to transport platforms. This case illustrates the importance of coordination and integration with additional resources that can be utilised in remote rural locations.

The delivery of the new prehospital emergency medicine curriculum: reflections on a pilot programme in the UK.

Introduction: Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine is a subspecialty of Emergency Medicine and Anaesthesia in the UK, overseen by the Inter-collegiate Board for Training in Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine (IBTPHEM). Organisations delivering General Medical Council (GMC) approved programmes require clear educational governance frameworks to ensure high standards of training. This study outlines the experiences of an Emergency Medicine trainee during an Out of Programme Year with a regional Air Ambulance service in the UK.

Can experienced paramedics perform tracheal intubation at cardiac arrests? Five years experience of a regional air ambulance service in the UK.

Aims: Paramedic tracheal intubation has been reported to carry a high failure rate and morbidity. A comparison between doctor and paramedic-led intubation at out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) was conducted to assess whether this finding was observed in our clinical practice.

Methods: Retrospective review of all medical OHCA attended by the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) over a 64-month period.