Medic One Funded Projects

European Congress on Emergency Medicine
Fiona Gillies

At the beginning of October with the kind support of the Medic 1 Trust, I had the opportunity to escape Edinburgh’s increasingly cool weather to present an abstract at the European Congress on Emergency Medicine in Vienna.

The conference ran for a total of 3 days in the beautiful Hofburg Palace in central Vienna, with reputed speakers and delegates attending from throughout Europe, North America/Canada, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The programme was also equally diverse, with its content divided into speaker themes such as“State of the Art, Philosophies and Controversies, Research and Young Emergency Medicine Doctor”.

Our abstract was accepted for “Oral Paper” presentation within a paediatric emergency medicine strand of selected papers, which I presented on behalf of co-authors Gregor Campbell Hewson and Nick Beattie. It was well received and generated a number of questions from amongst the attendees. Our study abstract is summarised as follows:

Our study compared treatment outcomes of paediatric closed distal radius and forearm fractures following reduction via ED procedural sedation versus inpatient manipulation under anaesthesia. Data was collected over a one-year period from August 2015-August 2016 from RHSC Edinburgh with 76 patients aged 1-13 included. We concluded from our findings that ED procedural sedation provided a reduced time to fracture reduction compared with inpatient MUA. It is as effective as inpatient MUA in those deemed safe for sedation. A semi-elective ED service has the potential to provide a more cost-effective alternative to inpatient management by reducing pressure on downstream inpatient services. 

I thoroughly enjoyed presenting at EuSEM 2016 and I recommend the experience to other trainees should the opportunity arise.

Fiona Gillies
Emergency Medicine LAS, RIE.