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Introduction: No definitive answer has been given to the question ‘who should teach cardiopulmonary resuscitation?’ Healthcare professionals and high school teachers are mostly the trainers, but medical students are increasingly being used for this purpose. Methods: We divided 296 high school students in three groups based on trainer professional level. Medical students, anaesthesia and intensive care residents, and anaesthesia and intensive care specialists provided basic life support training. We tested their theoretical knowledge with the help of a multiple-choice question questionnaire and practical abilities with the help of a medical simulator, recording chest compression frequency as the primary outcome parameter. Results: The study shows comparable results in all groups, with the exception of the chest compression frequency which was higher in the students’ and residents’ groups (students: 134.7/min ± 14.1; residents: 137.9/min ± 15.9; specialists: 126.3/min ± 19.3). Increased rates were not associated with lower depths (39.0 mm ± 8.2, 40.5 mm ± 9.7, and 38.1 mm ± 8.2), so the quality of compressions provided may be seen as equivalent in all the study groups. Conclusion: Our data suggest that medical students may be as effective as anaesthesia and intensive care specialists and residents in cardiopulmonary resuscitation training.

Anatomic variations of the cervical and supraclavicular regions are possible with an impact on regional anesthesia strategy. The presence of cervical ribs may obstruct needle visualization for brachial plexus block in those regions. Preprocedural scan may help in choosing the appropriate technique.

Introduction: Training for cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a very important topic for society, trainers and researchers. However it is not yet established who should be trained and by whom nor how the training programmes should be accomplished. We developed a study to evaluate an existing programme where medical students train high school students in cardiopulmonary resuscitation using instrumented mannequins to teach and collect performance data. Method: The students of four randomly selected high school classes were trained by four randomly selected medical students and were evaluated by an independent evaluator. The level of knowledge provided and the level of technical skills acquired were analysed. Results: One hour of lecturing was enough to increase the mean of correct answers from 39.52% to 78.48% when we tested knowledge. Testing for skills retention we found that that 92.75% of trained students taped the shoulder; 95.65% asked loudly “Are you all right?” at the right moment; 97.1% shouted for help at the right moment, the entire group remembered to check the breathing at the right moment, and 92.75% executed a correct head tilt chin lift manoeuvre; 86.9% remembered to call 112 at the right moment. Automatic recordings showed that mean flow fraction was 80.74%, mean no flow time was 18.9 seconds, mean frequency of chest compressions was 134.7/min and mean compression depth was 39.06 mm. Conclusions: The results showed that high school students achieved a good level of knowledge and acceptable cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills when trained by medical students.

Medical educators are facing the new challenge of using medical simulation for teaching purposes. The use of simulators seems attractive for trainers and for trainees, but prices of simulators may be prohibitive. In an era of limited resources it is mandatory when using such an expensive tool as simulation, to prove its benefits. Despite the fact that simulation provides opportunity for training, additional advantages are far from being established. The supposed benefits of using medical simulators in teaching and examination needs to be proven regarding two aspects: effectiveness and efficiency.Formatorul din învăţământul medical trebuie să facă faţă unei noi provocări: folosirea simulatoarelor medicale în scopuri educative. Utilizarea simulatoarelor medicale pare atrăgătoare atât pentru student cât şi pentru formator, dar preţurile simulatoarelor pot fi prohibitive. Într-o epocă a resurselor limitate este obligatoriu ca folosirea unor instrumente atât de scumpe să îşi demonstreze beneficiile. Deşi simularea oferă oportunitatea pentru formare, avantajele suplimentare sunt departe de a fi stabilite. Presupusele beneficii ale folosirii simulatoarelor medicale trebuie să fie demonstrate ţinând cont de două aspecte: eficacitate şi eficienţă.

Key Clinical Message Ultrasound‐guided saphenous nerve block above the knee may be a valuable diagnosis tool in patient presenting chronic pain of the calf.

The objective of our study was to determine the maximal non-reactive concentrations for midazolam and ketamine in healthy volunteers using both prick and intradermal skin tests. Twenty-one healthy Caucasian volunteers were tested for midazolam and ketamine using more clustered concentrations (identical for both prick and intradermal tests) than those resulting from decimal dilutions. The criteria for positivity were based on dilutions of drugs that cause wheal and flare reactions in subjects without history of allergy. For the prick method, the concentrations that did not produce wheal and flare were 1 mg/ml for midazolam and 10 mg/ml for ketamine. For intradermal tests, using serial dilutions, we found that the highest concentration for which the subjects did not pass the positivity criteria was 0.25 mg/ml for both drugs.

Introduction: The immune responses in patients with novel A(H1N1) virus infection (nvA(H1N1)) are incompletely characterized. We investigated the profile of Th1 and Th17 mediators and interferon-inducible protein-10 (IP-10) in groups with severe and mild nvA(H1N1) disease and correlated them with clinical aspects. Methods: Thirty-two patients hospitalized with confirmed nvA(H1N1) infection were enrolled in the study: 21 patients with nvA(H1N1)-acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and 11 patients with mild disease. One group of 20 patients with bacterial sepsis-ARDS and another group of 15 healthy volunteers were added to compare their cytokine levels with pandemic influenza groups. In the nvA(H1N1)-ARDS group, the serum cytokine samples were obtained on admission and 3 days later. The clinical aspects were recorded prospectively. Results: In the nvA(H1N1)-ARDS group, obesity and lymphocytopenia were more common and IP-10, interleukin (IL)-12, IL-15, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)a, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-9 were significantly increased versus control. When comparing mild with severe nvA(H1N1) groups, IL-6, IL-8, IL-15 and TNFa were significantly higher in the severe group. In nonsurvivors versus survivors, IL-6 and IL-15 were increased on admission and remained higher 3 days later. A positive correlation of IL-6, IL-8 and IL-15 levels with C-reactive protein and with > 5-day interval between symptom onset and admission, and a negative correlation with the PaO2:FiO2 ratio, were found in nvA(H1N1) groups. In obese patients with influenza disease, a significant increased level of IL-8 was found. When comparing viral ARDS with bacterial ARDS, the level of IL-8, IL-17 and TNFa was significantly higher in bacterial ARDS and IL12 was increased only in viral ARDS. Conclusions: In our critically ill patients with novel influenza A(H1N1) virus infection, the hallmarks of the severity of disease were IL-6, IL-15, IL-8 and TNFa. These cytokines, except TNFa, had a positive correlation with the admission delay and C-reactive protein, and a negative correlation with the PaO2:FiO2 ratio. Obese patients with nvA(H1N1) disease have a significant level of IL-8. There are significant differences in the level of cytokines when comparing viral ARDS with bacterial ARDS.