October 2024; papers of the month

The Resus Room

Welcome back to October's Papers of the Month. We've been really spoilt with three fantastic papers to discuss this month!

First up we take a look at the accuracy of non-invasive blood pressure readings in critically unwell patients in the prehospital environment and see how they could falsely reassure in both hypotension and hypertension.

Next up we take a look at the superb SHED study, which looks to evaluate the accuracy of a plain CT head in identifying subarachnoid haemorrhage at different time frames. Currently NICE recommend an LP after a negative scan if the scan was performed more than 6 hours from onset. But what does this significant dataset show and importantly how likely are you to 'miss' an aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage if scanned within the first 24 hours and not following up with an LP?

Lastly we look at a paper that highlight the potential benefit of naloxone in out of hospital cardiac arrest in opioid overdose. This delves into priorities in resuscitation, the fundamentals and some possible unexpected physiological effects from naloxone.

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom!

Simon & Rob