Emergency Medicine
When time is not on your side, emergency treatment is crucial for saving human lives. Emergency medical devices enable immediate treatment and provide the ideal support to the emergency services when it comes to first response measures. Portable ventilators guarantee, for example, oxygen supply and CO2 elimination during transportation to the hospital ,which can be crucial to the chances of survival.
For over 45 years, WEINMANN has been developing devices for emergency medicine that can save lives by enabling rapid and conscientious first aid.
What does emergency medicine mean?
Emergency medicine is a medical field focused on quick and effective treatment of acute, life-threatening conditions.
The aim of emergency medicine is to maintain or restore threatened vital functions by taking immediate life-saving measures, which range from first aid to complex actions such as intubation or mechanical ventilation.
What does emergency medicine comprise?
Emergency medicine comprises the entire chain of survival – from first aid and safe transportation to the hospital with specialized equipment, through to inpatient care. It can be divided into prehospital emergency medicine, clinical emergency medicine and disaster medicine:
- In prehospital emergency medicine initial treatment measures are performed outside the hospital – usually at the scene of the accident or during transportation to the hospital.
- Clinical emergency medicine concentrates on the treatment of emergency patients in the hospital. Specialized emergency teams, emergency rooms and intensive care units are available to ensure continued treatment and stabilization.
- Disaster medicine deals with the organization and coordination of medical help in large-scale emergency situations involving a large number of injured or sick people. Individual treatment initially takes a back seat due to triage.
What are typical examples of emergencies?
Medical emergencies are wide-ranging and often require the use of specialized devices:
- Resuscitation: In the event of a cardiac arrest, quick action is life-saving. Defibrillators and portable ventilators are indispensable.
- Heart attack: Portable ECG devices are crucial for quickly diagnosing and monitoring a heart attack, especially at the prehospital stage.
- CO poisoning: In cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, quick diagnosis with a pulse oximeter and immediate oxygen therapy or non-invasive ventilation with oxygen devices are very important.
- Exacerbated COPD: Non-invasive ventilation, in particular, is crucial for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
- Dyspnea: Various causes of breathing difficulty require flexible solutions. In addition to oxygen therapy, specialized ventilators can also be used.
- Shock: For different types of shock (e.g. septic, anaphylactic, hypovolemic shock), monitors for patient monitoring and advanced diagnostics are important for observing the oxygen saturation in the blood.
- Multiple trauma: In the case of multiple injuries, comprehensive diagnosis and monitoring devices with special modes for prehospital emergency anesthesia are crucial.
ABCDE approach to emergency treatment
The ABCDE approach is a systematic approach to emergency medicine for examining and treating patients. This procedure uses a list of priorities and works on the basis of “Treat first what kills first”.
The following table lists a number of questions and actions that need to be considered when dealing with the individual steps[1]:
The ABCDE approach enables rapid treatment in life-threatening circumstances. Hemorrhaging is an exception: in view of the minimal chances of survival in the event of severe bleeding, the approach prioritizes getting this under control even before ensuring a clear airway.
This leads to the creation of the xABCDE approach as a variation of the original approach. The additional “x” stands for “eXsanguination” (hemorrhaging). The questions and actions regarding hemorrhaging are summarized in the following table:
WEINMANN: Emergency devices for emergency medicine
The right equipment plays a crucial role in emergency medicine – and this is exactly where emergency devices from WEINMANN come into their own:
MEDUMAT Standard² is ideal for use in emergency situations. Its light weight and long battery runtime guarantee mobility at any emergency scene and offers reliable support in critical situations. The device has various ventilation modes, enabling it to adapt to different respiratory insufficiency severity levels. It is particularly useful for resuscitation, where the CCSV mode ensures optimal oxygenation and decarboxylation of the blood.
MEDUCORE Standard² acts as a defibrillator and offers monitoring functions as well as non-invasive blood pressure measurement. It can also be used to create and evaluate 6- and 12-lead ECGs, which can be transmitted to the hospital, as a telemedicine functionality.
All MEDUMAT devices also have different modes available for pre-oxygenation and oxygen therapy.
MEDUVENT Standard is one of the world’s smallest and lightest emergency and transport ventilators. The turbine-powered device can supply an adult for an average of eight hours on a single battery charge at typical ventilation settings – even without an external power or gas supply. It enables inspiratory oxygen concentrations of 21 % to 100 %. MEDUVENT Standard is simple and intuitive to operate with its rotary pushbutton, so the device guarantees efficient and guideline-compliant treatment.
WEINMAN also offers practical solutions such as the electrical and manual suction devices ACCUVAC Pro and ACCUVAC Lite, or the innovative LIFE-BASE portable unit, which simplifies transportation and the combining of equipment for ventilation, monitoring and defibrillation.
With intuitive controls, quick-start options for therapy and the facility to adapt the treatment to suit the patient’s gender and height, WEINMANN ensures that medical staff can concentrate fully on what really matters when it comes to emergency situations – emergency medicine.