Improving emergency ENT and airway care

Improving emergency obstetric care.

Professor Bob Pattinson qualified as an obstetrician and gynecologist in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in 1985 and underwent further training in perinatal care in Oxford in 1987/88. He completed an MD on the use of Doppler ultrasound in high-risk pregnancies in 1992. In 1997 the MRC in South Africa awarded him the Maternal and Infant Health Care Strategies ResearchUnit. Currently, Professor Patti...

Laryngeal mask airway in ENT surgery.

Improving the safety of remote site emergency airway management

Airway management, particularly in non-theatre settings, is an area of anaesthesia and critical care associated with significant risk of morbidity & mortality, as highlighted during the 4th National Audit Project of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (NAP4). A survey of junior anaesthetists at our hospital highlighted a lack of confidence and perceived lack of safety in emergency airway managem...

A multifaceted approach to improving the quality of ENT Emergency Clinic referrals

It is imperative that primary care referrals are directed to the appropriate secondary care service. Patients presenting to a primary care physician with ENT conditions may require review in an Emergency Clinic. The latter clinics provide patients with rapid access to secondary care, for urgent, yet non-life-threatening conditions. In our department, we noticed that patients with conditions ina...

Fracture synthetic tracheostomy tube: an ENT emergency.

A synthetic tracheostomy tube [non-metallic type] fracturing within three days of insertion is very rare but it could lead to serious complications such as acute asphyxia or sudden death. We report three such cases at our centre. Recommendations are made to closely observe patients on tracheostomy tube in the first seven days post-insertion of the tube.