Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 15.06.2002, Qupperneq 30

POSTERS / ICELAND 2002: EMERGENCY MEDICINE BETWEEN CONTINENTS
P 38 - Toxicology
Staff qualifícation for providing ventilation during mass
toxicology event
Benin-Goren O
Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv*, Israel
A toxicology event (TE) is one of the most complicated scenarios
which a medical team has to deal with. It’s become a real threat
during recent times, not only because of the recent occurrences and
risk of terrorist incidents. The main problems with a toxicology
event are:
Difficulties with identifying the cause in real time.
The involvement of many organs in a single patient as well as the
number of victims, which creates a challenge for the medical and
nursing staff.
The number of affected victims can create an overflow situation in
the medical center (MC) with a shortage of personnel and
equipment.
In order to help the MC deal with such potential scenarios, the
Center for Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine Education
(CREME) established a training program for non-medical staff
that changes role in TE and provides ventilation to the victims.
The plan has to be such that can be implemented in real time and
based on:
Establishing a disaster plan in advance including number of
expected victims.
Establishing a training program including mandatory disaster
preparedness that will provide education, material and staff
orientation to facilitate familiarity with the MC.
At the end of the training program the staff should know how to
ventilate patients requiring ventilation. The staff should perform
ventilation according to standards and by the authority given by the
MC director. The staff should know how to identify complications
of mechanical ventilation.
P 39 - Toxicology
Toxicology Information Resources from the National Library of
Medicine
Wexler P
National Library of Medicine/Toxicology and Environmental Health Information
Program, United States
Objective: To describe the NLM’s TOXNET system and other
information resources in toxicology.
The National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Toxicology and
Environmental Health Information Program (TEHIP) offers a
wide range of Web-based databases and other resources critical to
the practices of toxicology and emergency medicine. It’s TOXNET
system features databases such as the bibliographic TOXLINE
with some 3 million references, the scientifically peer-reviewed
Hazardous Substances Data Bank, files on carcinogenesis from the
National Cancer Institute, and risk assessment from the U.S. EPA.
TOXNET also includes the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory, and
ChemlDplus, an extensive file containing chemical nomenclature
and links. TOXNET is widely used to access data on toxicology,
hazardous chemicals, and environmental releases. Its databases are
supplemented by additional resources that include a tutorial (called
ToxTutor) on basic principles of toxicology, a glossary of toxico-
logical terms, links to external resources, special topics such as
chemical warfare agents, biological warfare agents, and pesticides
used against West Nile Virus vectors. TEHIP is developing special
pages for the consumer and plans to shortly debut new databases
on occupational health and household products.
P 40 - Remote access and Travel Emergency Medicine
Radio-maritime medical services: The Singapore General
Hospital experience
Lateef F
Dept of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
Medical care for the sick and injured on a variety of sea-faring
vessels throughout the world represents a challenging area of
medical care. The scope is wide and it is unique in terms of the
problems encountered at sea, logistical difficulties in assessment
and treatment, as well as the provision of definitive care. The
problems of sparse resource availability, great distances, isolation,
communications, accessibility and weather are also very real.
Singapore lies at the cross-roads of Asia. Its strategic location
makes it accessible to maritime traffic in two ocean regions via the
Pacific and Indian Oceans (covering a total area of 253 million
km2). In Singapore, radio-medical advice was at first coordinated
by the Port Health Authority. In 1980, this was taken over by the
Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital.
This paper analyzes 2,320 calls received over a period of 21 years
(i.e. Jan. 1980 until Dec. 2000). It highlights the common consulta-
tions, modes of communications, treatment, management pre-
scribed, training requirements, limitations as well as challenges for
the future.
Key 'vords: maritime, radio-medical ad ice, communications.
P 41 - Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Pharmacy availability of activated charcoal vs. ipecac syrup
Salvaggio C
St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, United States
Introduction: For potentially toxic ingestions, pediatricians have
long recommended that parents stock ipecac syrup at home.
Stocking gastric decontamination products in the home offers the
advantage of decreased transit time to administration after toxic
ingestions. Recent recommendations support the home use of
activated charcoal (AC) instead of ipecac syrup. Supporters of AC
contend that it has a higher safety profile and possibly greater
efficacy. With recent recommendations to stock AC at home
instead of ipecac syrup, a prospective study was conducted to assess
the availability of AC in outpatient pharmacies.
Objective: To determine pharmacy availability of AC vs. ipecac
syrup in Pennsylvania, USA and to identify limited availability of
AC as a polential barrier to its pre-hospital use.
Methods: A prospective phone survey of a random sampling of
Pennsylvania pharmacies was conducted. A list of all licensed phar-
macies in the 67 counties of Pennsylvania was obtained from the
Pennsylvania state department. By random selection, a minimum
of 3 pharmacies in each county, (including at least one indepen-
dently operated and one chain pharmacy), were surveyed regarding
30 Læknablaðið/Fylgirit 45 2002/88