Justin Sempsrott

Wilderness Medical Society Practice Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Drowning

The Wilderness Medical Society convened a panel to review available evidence supporting practices for the prevention and acute management of drowning in out-of-hospital and emergency medical care settings. Literature about definition and terminology, epidemiology, rescue, resuscitation, acute clinical management, disposition, and drowning prevention was reviewed. The panel graded evidence supporting practices according to the American College of Chest Physicians criteria, then made recommendations based on that evidence. Recommendations were based on the panels collective clinical experience and judgment when published evidence was lacking.

Comment on Cerland, L. et al. Incidence and Consequences of Near-Drowning-Related Pneumonia—A Descriptive Series from Martinique, French West Indies. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017, 14, 1402

We read with great interest the recent paper by Cerland et al. on the frequency, nature, and consequences of post-drowning pneumonia[...].

The use of non-uniform drowning terminology: a follow-up study

BackgroundIn 2002, the World Congress on Drowning developed a uniform definition for drowning. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of “non-uniform drowning terminology” (NUDT) and “non-uniform drowning definitions” (NUDD) in peer-reviewed scientific literature from 2010 to 2016, and compare these findings with those from our unpublished study performing a similar analysis on literature from 2003 to 2010.MethodsA systematic review was performed using drowning-specific search terms in Pubmed and Web of Science. Titles and abstracts published between July 2010 and January 2016 were screened for relevance to the study focus. Articles meeting screening criteria were reviewed for exclusion criteria to produce the final group of studies. These articles were reviewed by four reviewers for NUDT and NUDD. The Fisher exact test was used to determine any statistically significant changes.ResultsThe final group of studies included 167 articles. A total of 53 articles (32%) utilized NUDT, with 100% of these including the term “near drowning”. The proportion of articles utilizing NUDT was significantly less than reported by our previous study (p < 0.05). In addition, 32% of the articles included a definition for drowning (uniform or non-uniform), with 15% of these utilizing NUDD.DiscussionOur study reveals a statistically significant improvement over the past thirteen years in the use of uniform drowning terminology in peer-reviewed scientific literature, although year-to-year variability over the current study period does not yield an obvious trend.ConclusionsOf the articles reviewed during the 2010-2016 study period, 32% included outdated and non-uniform drowning terminology and definitions. While this reveals an absolute decrease of 11% as compared with the previous study period (2003-2010), there is still significant room for improvement.

Fatal and non-fatal drowning in rivers

In response to the letter from Byard [1] describing two drowning incidents in the Murrumbidgee River in Wagga Wagga, and the author’s own experience with being rescued himself, we commend those involved for executing a safe rescue. Drowning while attempting rescue accounts for 2% of all drowning-related deaths in Australia [2]. In many cases it is the person in distress that survives, and the would-be rescuer who dies [3]. We agree that a better understanding of the omnipresent dangers associated with rivers is needed, as these locations feature prominently in the Australian and New Zealand drowning statistics [4, 5]. Our concern, and reason for corresponding, is the continued use of the outdated terminology “near drowning”. In 2002, the World Congress on Drowning developed the following uniform definition for drowning: “The process of experiencing respiratory impairment due to submersion or immersion in liquid” [6]. With this definition also came the recommendation to discontinue the use of modifiers such as “near”, “secondary”, “wet/dry”, and “active/passive”. Whereas “drowning” was often used to describe a fatal event, based on this uniform definition, which has been adopted by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the primary definition does not include outcome. From this definition, terms like “fatal”, “non-fatal”, or “drowning with morbidity” can be

Reply to letter: Neurocognitive and behavioral outcomes in a nearly drowned child with cardiac arrest and hypothermia resuscitated after 43 min of no flow-time: A case study

Citation for published version (APA): Venema, A. M., Webber, J., Schmidt, A. C., Sempsrott, J. R., Szpilman, D., Queiroga, A. C., ... Tipton, M. (2018). Reply to letter: Neurocognitive and behavioral outcomes in a nearly drowned child with cardiac arrest and hypothermia resuscitated after 43 min of no flow-time: A case study. Resuscitation, 122, e7-e8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2017.07.017

Pediatric non-fatal drowning events: do they warrant trauma team activation?

To the Editor, We read with interest the article by Chotai et al. discussing traumatic injuries and the involvement of trauma teams for drowning events involving children. We agree that the routine activation of trauma teams in drowning cases may be unwarranted, and criteria should be reviewed. As the authors rightly state, drowning is a leading cause of death worldwide, especially in pediatric populations. Our concern, and reason for corresponding, is the continued use of outdated terminology in the title and text of this article; namely the term “neardrowning”. In 2002, the World Congress on Drowning developed the following uniform definition for drowning: “The process of experiencing respiratory impairment due to submersion or immersion in liquid.” With this definition also came the recommendation to discontinue the use of modifiers such as “near”, “secondary”, “wet/dry/delayed”, and “active/passive.” Whereas “drowning” was often used to describe a fatal event, based on this uniform definition, which has been adopted by the World Health Organization, International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the primary definition does not include outcome. From this definition, terms like “fatal”, “non-fatal”, or “drowning with morbidity” can be used to better describe the event. The use of outdated terminology is unfortunately not a rarity in peer-reviewed literature, as a systematic review we recently performed and are seeking publication of, found that 32%of drowning-related articles over the past 6 y included nonuniform terminology. We see this as an opportunity for education and hope that readers, authors and journal editors can work towards improving the use of uniform drowning terminology in practice and research so that patient treatment and data collection may be optimized. This includes using the correct terminology in education programmes, medical reports, publications and the media.