Treatment of acute myocardial infarction in Scottish emergency departments: survey of current practice

Abstract

Most emergency departments in Scotland are now administering thrombolysis for patients with acute myocardial infarction. Thrombolysis, delivered either in the prehospital arena or in the emergency department, is likely to be the primary option for patients with acute myocardial infarction in Scotland in the foreseeable future.

Feeling Fixed and its Contribution to Patient Satisfaction with Primary Angioplasty: A Qualitative Study

“…Rates of primary angioplasty are increasing but there is considerable variation in the amount of primary angioplasty undertaken by country [5]. In the United Kingdom (UK), the majority of patients with STEMI are currently thrombolysed, although rates of primary angioplasty are increasing [6,7]. Future developments of services for the treatment of STEMI are likely to require significant service reorganisation in order to increase provision of primary angioplasty, with patients transferring from or bypassing local emergency departments to receive primary angioplasty at a specialist centre [8,9].…”

Failure to improve door-to-needle time by switching to emergency physician-initiated thrombolysis for ST elevation myocardial infarction

“…Thrombolysis for acute STEMI remains a major treatment modality in developing countries, but also in established healthcare systems. 1 Reported door-needle times in neighbouring countries range from 210 min in Bangladeshi hospitals 2 to 19 min in urban Japan. 3 Established western healthcare systems also struggle to meet performance targets: a recent study in 178 American hospitals established that only 44.5% of patients were thrombolysed within the target time 4 -data confirming the general difficulties in achieving thrombolysis goals.…”