Prehospital lateral canthotomy

We present the case of a 21-year-old patient who required a prehospital lateral canthotomy following a penetrating injury to the head. This, the first recorded prehospital case, highlights the importance of this simple, potentially sight saving procedure and why it should be in the armamentarium of all prehospital emergency physicians. Background Our patient was treated by the physician staffed Greater Sydney Area Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (GSA-HEMS) from its satellite base 100 km South of Sydney, Australia. GSA-HEMS covers the state of New South Wales providing medical teams for prehospital trauma response and interhospital critical care retrieval. Case report A GSA-HEMS medical team was called to the home of a previously healthy 21-year-old female subject who had reportedly been shot. On arrival, the team found the patient lying in the front room of her house being attended to by the local paramedics. On examination, there was a...

Source: Emergency Medicine Journal - January 24, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Hill, C., Reid, C., Tzannes, A., Burns, B., Bartlett, M. Tags: Eye Diseases, Coma and raised intracranial pressure, Stroke, Hypertension, Adult intensive care, Resuscitation Reflections on prehospital care Source Type: research