August 2026; papers of the month

This month we've got another really varied mix of papers that all have the potential to influence everyday emergency and prehospital practice. We start by asking a question that's becoming increasingly relevant as prehospital critical care teams develop ever more advanced capabilities: are all those extra interventions costing us precious scene time, and if so, how much? We then move into post-cardiac arrest care with one of the biggest oxygen trials we've seen to date, looking at whether aiming for conservative oxygen targets actually improves neurological outcomes after ROSC.  Finally, we tackle one of emergency medicine's diagnostic challenges, necrotising soft tissue infection. We'll look at what the latest evidence tells us about physical examination, imaging and the much-debated LRINEC score, and whether any of them are good enough to confidently rule this devastating disease in or out. As always, we'll pull apart the methodology, discuss what these studies mean for our own practice and, perhaps most importantly, ask whether they should actually change what we do tomorrow. Once again we'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom! Simon & Rob