BackgroundMedical students have been deployed in victim care of several disasters throughout history. They are corner stones in first-line care in recent pandemic planning. Furthermore, every physician and senior medical student is expected to assist in case of disaster situations, but are they educated to do so? Being one of Europe’s densest populated countries with multiple nuclear installations, a large petrochemical industry and also at risk for terrorist attacks, The Netherlands bear some risks for incidents. We evaluated the knowledge on Disaster Medicine in the Dutch medical curriculum. Our hypothesis is that Dutch senior medical students are not prepared at all.MethodsSenior Dutch medical students were invited through their faculty to complete an online survey on Disaster Medicine, training and knowledge. This reported knowledge was tested by a mixed set of 10 theoretical and practical questions.ResultsWith a mean age of 25.5 years and 60 % females, 999 participants completed the survey. Of the participants, 51 % considered that Disaster Medicine should absolutely be taught in the regular medical curriculum and only 2 % felt it as useless; 13 % stated to have some knowledge on disaster medicine. Self-estimated capability to deal with various disaster situations varied from 1.47/10 in nuclear incidents to 3.92/10 in influenza pandemics. Self-estimated knowledge on these incidents is in the same line (1.71/10 for nuclear incidents and 4.27/10 in pandemics). Despite this limited knowledge and confidence, there is a high willingness to respond (ranging from 4.31/10 in Ebola outbreak over 5.21/10 in nuclear incidents to 7.54/10 in pandemics). The case/theoretical mix gave a mean score of 3.71/10 and raised some food for thought. Although a positive attitude, 48 % will place contaminated walking wounded in a waiting room and 53 % would use iodine tablets as first step in nuclear decontamination. Of the participants, 52 % even believes that these tablets protect against external radiation, 41 % thinks that these tablets limit radiation effects more than shielding and 57 % believes that decontamination of chemical victims consists of a specific antidote spray in military cabins.ConclusionsDespite a high willingness to respond, our students are not educated for disaster situations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12245-015-0077-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Neither survival benefits nor a decreased incidence of shock on admission were observed after prehospital helicopter emergency medical service URBC transfusions. There were no prehospital transfusion reactions in this study; therefore, URBC transfusions were deemed to be safe. A prospective randomized study is warranted to evaluate the effect of early URBC transfusions and transfusions with preheated URBC on the survival of patients with severe prehospital haemorrhagic shock.

Summary Electroencephalographic density spectral array monitoring has been developed to facilitate the interpretation of unprocessed electroencephalogram signals. The primary aim of this prospective observational study, performed in a tertiary children's hospital, was to identify the clinical applicability and validity of density spectral array monitoring in infants and children during sevoflurane anaesthesia. We included 104 children, aged < 6 years, undergoing elective surgery during sevoflurane anaesthesia. We investigated the correlation between non‐steady state end‐tidal sevoflurane and the expression of the four electroencephalogram frequency bands β, α, θ and δ, representing density spectral array. Patients were divided into three age groups (< 6 months, 6–12 months, > 12 months). There was a significant correlation between end‐tidal sevoflurane and density spectral array in the age groups 6–12 months (p < 0.05) and 1–6 years (p < 0.0001). In infants < 6 months of age, the relative percentages of density spectral array did not correlate with end‐tidal sevoflurane. The main finding was that different end‐tidal concentrations of sevoflurane produce age‐dependent changes in the density spectral array power spectrum. In infants younger than 6 months‐old, α and β coherence are absent, whereas θ and δ oscillations have already emerged. In cases where anaesthesia was too deep, this presented as burst suppression on the electroencephalogram, θ disappeared, leaving the electroencephalographic activity in the δ range. Future research should address this issue, aiming to clarify whether the emergence of θ oscillations in infants helps to prevent sevoflurane overdosing.

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There is generally limited but conflicting literature on the incidence, causes, and outcomes of pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This study was performed to determine the incidence and outcome of pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest reported by all helicopter emergency medical services in the Netherlands and to provide a description of causes and treatments and, in particular, a description of the specific interventions that can be performed by a physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed of all documented pediatric (0 < 18 years of age) out-of-hospital cardiac arrests from July 2015 to July 2017, attended by all 4 Dutch helicopter emergency medical service teams. Results: Two hundred two out-of-hospital cardiac arrests were identified. The overall incidence in the Netherlands is 3.5 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in children per 100,000 pediatric inhabitants. The overall survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest was 11.4%. Eleven (52%) of the survivors were in the drowning group and between 12 and 96 months of age. Conclusion: Helicopter emergency medical services are frequently called to pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the Netherlands. The survival rate is normal to high compared with other countries. The 12-to 96month age group and drowning seem to have a relatively favorable outcome.