BACKGROUND: Many controversies still exist regarding ventilator parameters during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). This study aimed to investigate the CPR ventilation strategies currently being used among physicians in Chinese tertiary hospitals. METHODS: A survey was conducted among the cardiac arrest team physicians of 500 tertiary hospitals in China in August, 2018. Surveyed data included physician and hospital information, and preferred ventilation strategy during CPR. RESULTS: A total of 438 (88%) hospitals completed the survey, including hospitals from all 31 Chinese mainland provinces. About 41.1% of respondents chose delayed or no ventilation during CPR, with delayed ventilations all starting within 12 minutes. Of all the respondents who provided ventilation, 83.0% chose to strictly follow the 30:2 strategy, while 17.0% chose ventilations concurrently with uninterrupted compressions. Only 38.3% respondents chose to intubate after initiating CPR, while 61.7% chose to intubate immediately when resuscitation began. During bag- valve-mask ventilation, only 51.4% of respondents delivered a frequency of 10 breaths per minute. In terms of ventilator settings, the majority of respondents chose volume control (VC) mode (75.2%), tidal volume of 6–7 mL/kg (72.1%), PEEP of 0–5 cmH2O (69.9%), and an FiO2 of 100% (66.9%). However, 62.0% of respondents had mistriggers after setting the ventilator, and 51.8% had high pressure alarms. CONCLUSION There is a great amount of variability in CPR ventilation strategies among cardiac arrest team physicians in Chinese tertiary hospitals. Guidelines are needed with specific recommendations on ventilation during CPR.

A 76-year-old Chinese female presented by ambulance to the Emergency Department complaining of dizziness, headache and fatigue. Her son claimed that the patient “turned blue” three hours prior to onset of the patient’s symptoms. Paramedics noted the patient’s SpO2 was 83% on room air with no improvement with a non- rebreather mask. Past medical history was significant for diabetes and hypertension. Family, social and medication history were non-contributory. Patient denied ingestion of any traditional Chinese medicines but did have some choy sum (a variety of green vegetable) for lunch five hours prior to arrival. On examination, the patient appeared agitated, but alert. Purple lips and fingers were noted (Figure 1). Physical examination: heart rate 55 beats/minute, pulse oximetry 87%, respiratory rate 16 breaths/minute, blood pressure 143/51 mmHg. Bedside investigations: chest X-ray (clear lung fields and cardiomegaly); ECG (sinus rhythm, slight bradycardia at 53 beats/minute); hemoglobin 9.3 g/dL; glucose 10.9 mmol/L (196.2 mg/dL).

BACKGROUND: For emergency department (ED) patients, risk assessment, prophylaxis, early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) are essential for preventing morbidity and mortality. This study aimes to investigate knowledge amongst emergency medical staff in the management of VTE. METHODS: We designed a questionnaire based on multiple scales. The questionnaire was distributed to the medical and nursing clinical staff in the large urban ED of a medical center in Northern China. Data was described with percentages and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare ranked data between different groups. The statistical analysis was done using the SPSS 22.0 software. RESULTS: In this survey, 180 questionnaires were distributed and 174 valid responses (response rate of 96.67%) were collected and analyzed. In scores of VTE knowledge, no significant differences were found with respect to job (doctor vs. nurse), the number of years working in clinical medicine, education level, and current position, previous hospital experience and nurses' current work location within the ED. However, in pair wise comparison, we found participants who worked in ED for more than 5 years (n=83) scored significantly higher on the questionnaire than those under 5 years (n=91) (95.75 vs. 79.97, P=0.039). There was a significant difference in some questions based on gender, age, job, and nurse work location, number of working years, education level, and different ED working lifetime. CONCLUSION Our survey has shown deficiencies among ED medical staff in knowledge and awareness of the management of VTE. We recommend several changes be considered, such as the introduction of an interdisciplinary workshop for medical staff; the introduction of a standardized VTE protocol; a mandatory study module on VTE for new physicians and nurses; the introduction of a mandatory reporting system for adverse events (including VTE).

BACKGROUND: Penehyclidine is a newly developed anticholinergic agent. We aimed to investigate the role of penehyclidine in acute organophosphorus pesticide poisoning (OP) patients. METHODS: We searched the Pubmed, Cochrane library, EMBASE, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Biomedical literature (CBM) and Wanfang databases. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) recruiting acute OP patients were identified for meta-analysis. Main outcomesincluded cure rate, mortality rate, time to atropinization, time to 60% normal acetylcholinesterase (AchE) level, rate of intermediate syndrome (IMS) and rate of adverse drug reactions (ADR). RESULTS: Sixteen RCTs involving 1,334 patients were identified. Compared with the atropine-or penehyclidine-alone groups, atropine combined with penehyclidine significantly increased the cure rate (penehyclidine+atropine vs. atropine, 0.97 vs. 0.86, RR 1.13, 95% CI [1.07–1.19]; penehyclidine+atropine vs. penehyclidine, 0.93 vs. 0.80, RR 1.08, 95% CI [1.01–1.15]) and reduced the mortality rate (penehyclidine+atropine vs. atropine, 0.015 vs. 0.11, RR 0.17, 95% CI [0.06–0.49]; penehyclidine+atropine vs. penehyclidine, 0.13 vs. 0.08, RR 0.23, 95% CI [0.04–1.28]). Atropine combined with penehyclidine in OP patients also helped reduce the time to atropinization and AchE recovery, the rate of IMS and the rate of ADR. Compared with a single dose of atropine, a single dose of penehyclidine also significantly elevated the cure rate, reduced times to atropinization, AchE recovery, and rate of IMS. CONCLUSION Atropine combined with penehyclidine benefits OP patients by enhancing the cure rate, mortality rate, time to atropinization, AchE recovery, IMS rate, total ADR and duration of hospitalization. Penehyclidine combined with atropine is likely a better initial therapy for OP patients than atropine alone.