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Emergency Medicine Australasia

Formerly known as Emergency Medicine

Official Journal of The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and the Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine (ASEM)

Edited by:
Anthony F.T. Brown

Emergency Medicine Australasia publishes peer-reviewed articles, reports, reviews and opinions on the research and clinical practice of emergency care.

Emergency Medicine Australasia, with its strong interest in the effectiveness of emergency diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, is the journal of choice for anyone concerned with improving patient care in the pre-hospital and hospital emergency settings. As the leading journal in the specialty of emergency medicine in the Asia Pacific region, Emergency Medicine Australasia is committed to the furthering of scientific research, the support of educational objectives, and the dissemination of information to the emergency medicine community.

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Emergency Medicine Australasia is now ISI listed!

EMA in the Press

Sports a major cause of head injuries in children. December 2009

Sports are a major cause of head injuries in children in Victoria, with Australian Rules football the most commonly involved sport.

This is the finding of a study by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute published as an Early View (rapid online publication) in Emergency Medicine Australasia, the journal of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.

Head injuries in children are common and even mild head injury can lead to ongoing cognitive and behavioural changes.

Louise Crowe, from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, with colleagues Vicki Anderson, Cathy Catroppa, and Royal Children's Hospital emergency physician Dr Franz Babl, reviewed the medical records of all sport-related head injuries in children aged 6-16 years who presented at a tertiary children's hospital emergency department over a one-year period.

During that period, there were 406 head injuries in school-age children. Seventy per cent were male, and 33% were injured in sports. Of these, most were classified as mild, while 13% were classified as moderate or severe.

Australian Rules football was associated with more than 30% of all head injuries attributable to a sport and recreation cause. Eleven head injuries were classed as moderate: five from equestrian accidents, two from Australian Rules football, two from golf, and one each from cricket and hockey.For the equestrian accidents, which included both falling off a horse and being kicked by a horse, 51% of children were recorded as not wearing any head protection.

The researchers said the data from this study very likely under-represent the total number of sport-related injuries as many children did not present to hospital, instead attending GPs or seeking no medical help.

Head injuries involving bicycles or motorcycles might have occurred during sport activities, they added.

Although research is often concerned with the long-term impact of childhood head injury, an equally important goal is the prevention of these injuries that requires the identification of the causes as a first step.

Further prevention initiatives should consider targeting Australian Rules football and equestrian activities, the researchers recommend.

Read the full article HERE

Prospective study of 101 patients with suspected drink spiking
Paul Quigley, Dania M Lynch, Mark Little, Lindsay Murray, Ann-Maree Lynch and Sean J O'Halloran

'Drink spiking' refers to drugs or ethanol being added to a drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) without the conset of the person consuming it. It is purportedly done for purposes, such as sexual assault, rape, assault and robbery.

The public perception is that sedative drugs are placed (usually by men) into the drinks of others (usually women). In recent years, there appears to have been an increase in the number of cases being reported within the media, although the anecdotal reports outnumber formal complaints to the police by an estimated factor of 10.

Of the 97 alledged drink spiking cases included, there were only 9 plausible cases. We did not identify a single case where a sedative drug was likely to have been illegally placed in a drink in a pub or nightclub.

At follow-up there were no major sequelae and no police prosecutions. Thirty five per cent of patients still believed that they had been a victim of drink spiking irrespective of the results.

Read the full article HERE

Read about it in The Australian HERE

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Members of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine have FREE and COMPLETE online access to the College's official journal, Emergency Medicine Australasia.

Simply follow this link for access via the ACEM members' site.

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