Mostly descriptive analysis indicates that topical anaesthetics may offer an efficacious, non-invasive means of providing analgesia before suturing of dermal lacerations. Use of cocaine-based topical anaesthetics might be hard to justify, given the availability of other effective topical anaesthetics without cocaine. However, the overall quality of the evidence according to the GRADE system is low owing to limitations in design and implementation, imprecision of results and high probability of publication bias (selective reporting of data). Additional well-designed RCTs with low risk of bias are necessary before definitive conclusions can be reached.

Lung Protective Strategy for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Saves Lives Daniel M. Lindberg, MD reviewing Fuller BM et al. Crit Care Med 2017 Feb 2.
A quality improvement approach to this proven strategy lowered associated mortality, with a number needed to treat between 6 and 7.

Topic: Alcohol use disorder
NIAAA 2-question alcohol screen in emergency room setting may identify adolescents at risk for alcohol use disorder (Pediatrics 2016 Dec)

Topic: Acute low back pain
Kinesio taping may improve pain and reduce disability in patients with moderate acute low back pain (Clin Rehabil 2016 Oct)

Topic: Upper respiratory infection (URI) in adults and adolescents
Inosine pranobex may not decrease time to influenza-like symptom resolution in patients with acute respiratory viral infection (BMC Infect Dis 2016 Nov 7)

Topic: Ebola virus disease
Fever, headache, and myalgia common among survivors of Ebola virus disease (Emerg Infect Dis 2017 Jan)

Topic: Community-acquired pneumonia in adults

• Hospitalization and case-fatality rates from pneumonia varied according to infectious organism in the United States from 2002 to 2011 (Emerg Infect Dis 2016 Sep)
• Community-acquired pneumonia associated with increased risk of incident heart failure in adults (BMJ 2017 Feb 13)

Topic: Cardiac arrest in adults
Tracheal intubation during first 15 minutes of resuscitation associated with reduced survival to discharge in adults with in-hospital cardiac arrest (JAMA 2017 Feb 7)

Topic: Peritonsillar abscess
Needle aspiration may increase recurrence of peritonsillar abscess compared to incision and drainage in patients ≥ 8 years old (Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2016 Dec 23)

Topic: Hypertensive crisis
Intensive blood pressure control may not reduce risk of death or disability, and may increase risk of adverse events compared to standard control in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (N Engl J Med 2016 Sep 15)

Topic: Fever in the returning traveler
Review of approach to fever in the returning traveler (N Engl J Med 2017 Feb 9)

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