Influence of Military Service on Tetanus Antibody Titer in Korean Adults

PURPOSE: Most Korean veterans receive a tetanus immunization as part of military service. Both tetanus toxoid and immunoglobulin are given to injured patients that present to the emergency department, regardless of their tetanus antibody titer and history of military service. The goal of this study was to determine the tetanus antibody titer and history of military service among patients presenting to the emergency room. METHODS: Seven hundred and seventy patients visited the emergency department after an injury from April 2008 to June 2009. The samples obtained were tested using a Tetanus Immunoglobulin G ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) method. The tetanus antibody titer was analyzed according to time, five years after entrance into military service and also between veterans and nonveterans. RESULTS: Subjects that had safe antibody titers that were protective against tetanus up to 20 years after entrance into military accounted for 60%. Those with a history of military service were more likely to have protective antibody levels (> or =0.1 IU/ml, odds ratio 2.41, 95% CI 1.613-3.596) and mean antibody titers (p<0.001). In the subjects between 20 and 45 years of age those with a history of military service were more likely to have statistically significant antibody titers. In addition, male veterans were more likely to have significant antibody titers compared to the males and females that were not veterans (p=0.015 and p<0.001); however, there were no significant differences between the males and females that were not veterans. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that until about 20 years after entrance into military service, 60% of the subjects had protective tetanus antibody titers. The history of military service influenced tetanus antibody titers until about 45 years of age.

Law and Ethics in Emergency Medicine

Ethical problems in an emergency department (ED) are much more common than is usually recognized. But these difficult ethical dilemmas have not been dealt with by general medical ethicists. Most medical ethics guidelines tend to concentrate on chronic or at least relatively stable situations rather than on the acute, episodic cases that are typical in the ED. most ethical problems such as abortion, euthanasia, and professionalism can be solved after reflection and deliberation, and after a process of communication that reveals the values and interests of the patient or the patient's family. In contrast, when health care professionals in the ED recognize ethical problems, they often don't have enough time for an ethical consultation such as a Hospital Ethics Committee. Ethical principles such as autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice need to be applied to the unique setting of emergency medicine. Hence, it is necessary to develop ethics guidelines in emergency medicine and ethics education for health care professionals in emergency departments. At first, we collected cases involving ethical problems and reviewed the ethical and legal aspects of those cases. In this article, we summarize the ethical issues in emergency medicine, deal with actions in emergency medical services, and also consider the relationships between ethical issues and act on emergency medical services. We want to present the important factors that should be considered in ethical decision making within an emergency medicine department including patient decision making capacity, legal custody, and ethical principles.

External Validation of Prehospital Stroke Screen Scales for EMT: One Center Study

PURPOSE: We evaluated the validity of Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale (CPSS) and the Los Angeles Prehospital Stroke Screen (LAPSS) as prehospital stroke assessment tools for EMT-basics in Korea. METHODS: Patients (age> or =15 years) transported to a regional emergency center by 119 ambulances with one of 4 chiefs (altered mental status, weakness, dizziness, and syncope) were prospectively enrolled in the study during a 12-months period. Independent hospital EMT-basics in the emergency department triaged and recorded the LAPSS and the CPSS finding. On the basis of the final diagnosis by a neurologist, the sensitivity and specificity of the two methods were evaluated for all kinds of stroke and acute stroke within six hours of symptom onset. RESULTS: The study collected data for 653 patients. 47.2% of patients were male, with an average age of 62.2+/-15.3 years old. Their chief complaints were altered mental status (55.4%), weakness (9.3%), dizziness (16.7%), and syncope (18.5%). Of 89 stroke patients, 51.7% were diagnosed with ischemic stroke, 32.6% with hemorrhagic stroke, 15.7% with transient ischemic attack, and 6.9% with acute stroke. For all strokes, sensitivity and specificity of the LAPSS were 21.3% and 95.7%, and those of the CPSS were 44.9% and 80.7%, respectively. For acute stroke, sensitivity and specificity of the LAPSS were 22.2% and 94.6%, and those of the CPSS were 48.9% and 79.1%. CONCLUSION: US prehospital stroke assessment tools had low sensitivity in the hands of Korean EMT-basics in one regional emergency medical center. For improving prehospital diagnosis of stroke in Korean EMS, we should recommend the development of additional assessment tools.

Evaluation of the Appropriateness of Prehospital Emergency Care by 119 Rescue Services in Seoul Metropolitan Area

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the appropriateness of prehospital emergency care by 119 rescue services in Seoul. METHODS: We enrolled all patients who used 119 rescue services in Seoul between January and Sepember 2006 and analyzed the 119 ambulance patient care record databases. Major emergencies were defined and categorized into four groups: cardiopulmonary complaint (CP), neurologic complaint (NR), cardiorespiratory arrest (CA) and major trauma (MT). Interventions provided by emergency medical technicians were scored as 2:essential, 1:optional and 0:unnecessary in each category of major emergency. We summed scores of provided interventions per patient and graded them into four levels for conducting the appropriateness review. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship of risk factors to the appropriateness of intervention. RESULTS: Total number of cases was 171,112 of which 36,065 were major emergencies. The proportion of "very low" level appropriate was 40.1% for CP (N=11,522). 49.3% for NR (N=15,239), 14.5% for CA (N=1,591), and 32.7% for MT (N=7,713). The proportion of "high" level was less than 3% except for CA(11.3%). Variables affecting the "moderate" or "high" level of appropriateness of prehospital emergency care, as determined by multivariate logistic regression analysis, were age > or =65(OR: 1.425, 95% CI: 1.337-1.520), female gender (OR: 0.880, 95% CI: 0.828-0.935), and type of complaint in the order CP (OR: 0.181, 95% CI: 0.161-0.204), NR (OR: 0.184, 95% CI: 0.164-0.207), and MT (OR: 0.202, 95% CI: 0.178-0.229). CONCLUSION: The prehospital emergency care of 119 rescue services in Seoul was frequently inappropriate and was influenced by patient's age, gender and chief complaints.