Underuse of Epinephrine for the Treatment of Anaphylaxis in the Prehospital Setting.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening reaction. Its key management is rapid diagnosis and prompt administration of intramuscular epinephrine. There are many barriers to epinephrine use.

Objective

To assess the performance of dispatchers at suspecting anaphylaxis, proposing epinephrine treatment, helping find an epinephrine autoinjector (EAI) and using it.

Methods

This is a retrospective study. Calls classified as "anaphylaxis" or "allergy" were included, and voice recordings were reviewed. Clinical, environmental, and operational variables were collected. Anaphylaxis was suspected if sudden dyspnoea, abdominal symptoms (vomiting, abdominal pain, or diarrhoea), dizziness, or loss of consciousness were present.

Results

The dispatch handled 120,618 dispatch

SUBMITTER: Dami F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9033371 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature