Top 5 Articles of 2019

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In this episode, we summarize some of our favorite articles from 2019.

Roc vs Sux: Guihard B et al. Effect of rocuronium vs succinylcholine on endotracheal intubation success rate among patients undergoing out-of-hospital rapid sequence intubation: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA 2019 Dec 17; 322:2303. (https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.18254)

This trial may be difficult to interpret as non-inferiority trials operate under a different set of principles than typical superiority studies. An example of how the interpretation may differ had the results varied is seen below

Targeted Temperature Management after Cardiac Arrest: Lascarrou JB, Merdji H, Le gouge A, et al. Targeted Temperature Management for Cardiac Arrest with Nonshockable Rhythm. N Engl J Med. 2019.

Probability Adjusted D-Dimer in the Evaluation of PE: Kearon C, De wit K, Parpia S, et al. Diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism with d-Dimer Adjusted to Clinical Probability. N Engl J Med. 2019;381(22):2125-2134. For more on this topic, see this review.

Pregnancy and Evaluation of PE van der pol LM, Tromeur C, Bistervels IM, et al. Pregnancy-Adapted YEARS Algorithm for Diagnosis of Suspected Pulmonary Embolism. N Engl J Med. 2019;380(12):1139-1149.

For more, see this review.

Righini M, Le gal G. Diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism During Pregnancy. Ann Intern Med. 2019;171(2):148.

Additionally, Langlois E et al. retrospectively evaluated YEARS in their cohort of pregnant patients in the Righini study cohort and found a miss rate of 0%. Some have argued that the DiPEP study demonstrated that the D-dimer cannot be reliably used to exclude PE in pregnant patients (Goodacre. Diagnosis of Suspected Pulmonary Embolism in Pregnancy. Reply. N Engl J Med. 2019;380(25):e49). However, this study was significantly different. Over 60% of patients received empiric anticoagulation which may decrease the D-dimer results. Additionally, this likely reflects a different patient population (higher risk).

The CRASH-3 Trial Collaborators. Effects of Tranexamic Acid on Death, Disability, Vascular Occlusive Events and Other Morbidities in Patients with Acute Traumatic Brain Injury (CRASH-3): A Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Lancet 2019