Emergency surgical cricothyroidotomy: 24 successful cases leading to a simple 'scalpel-finger-tube' method.

Surgical airway access justifiably remains the final option for managing the 'can't intubate can't ventilate' situation, but available techniques are often complicated and might require special equipment. This paper reports on the real world experience of two experienced Australian medical specialists with backgrounds in Anaesthesia and Aeromedical Retrieval who performed 24 surgical airways, mainly under adverse prehospital conditions, over a combined 40 years of practice. All attempts were successful, the majority through a simple open 'scalpel-finger-tube' method, which is described here.

Tackling the burden of injury in Australasia: developing a binational trauma registry.

Existing trauma registries in Australia and New Zealand play an important role in monitoring the management of injured patients. Over the past decade, such monitoring has been translated into changes in clinical processes and practices. Monitoring and changes have been ad hoc, as there are currently no Australasian benchmarks for "optimal" injury management.

The Bali bombing: civilian aeromedical evacuation.

After the Bali bombing on 12 October 2002, many injured Australians required evacuation to Darwin, and then to burns units around Australia. Many patients were evacuated from Denpasar by Qantas, with assistance from staff of civilian medical retrieval services. The transport of patients from Darwin to specialist burns units involved a coordinated response of civilian and military services.

Risk of death among cases attending South Australian major trauma services after severe trauma: the first 4 years of operation of a state trauma system.

Background: Factors predictive of death at South Australian major trauma services were investigated among 8,654 patients who had experienced severe trauma from 1997 to 2000.

Method: Univariate and multivariate analyses of age, sex, injury severity, presence of comorbid conditions, and calendar year of presentation were performed.

Results: Multiple logistic regression indicated that factors predictive of death were older age; higher injury severity as indicated by the New Injury Severity Score and the Revised Trauma Score; and accompanying chronic liver disease, ischemic heart disease, and chronic renal failure.