May 2024; papers of the month

Welcome back to the podcast and three great papers for May's episode! First up we take a pretty deep look into refractory VF. This follows on from our our review of DOSE-VF in December '22's papers of the month and our recent Roadside to Resus on the topic. In that we discussed the possibility that many of the cases we see at pulse checks as being refractory VF may actually have had 5 seconds or more, post shock, where they jumped out of VF but then reverted back into it. This paper is a secondary analysis of DOSE-VF and reveals what really happen to these 'refractory VFs' by interrogating the defibrillators. What difference will it make to our strategy for recurrent and refractory VF? Next up we take a look at elderly patients presenting to the Emergency Department with abdominal pain with an analysis of the features that predict a serious abdominal condition. Lastly we look at the how different pressures exerted to the facemask when ventilating neonates can make in terms of bradycardia and apnoea. Once again we'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via X @TheResusRoom! Simon & Rob