Egyptian Board Emergency Medicine key terms

The proportion of resuscitation time during which chest compressions are actually delivered. It excludes pauses for rhythm checks, defibrillation, intubation, or vascular access, and targets above 60 percent.

The combined interval before and after a defibrillation attempt during which compressions stop. Keeping it under 10 seconds preserves coronary perfusion pressure and improves the chance of return of spontaneous circulation.

Adult chest compressions should depress the sternum 5 to 6 cm at 100 to 120 per minute, allowing full recoil. Shallower or faster compressions reduce stroke volume and coronary perfusion.

Ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia respond to defibrillation. Asystole and pulseless electrical activity require adrenaline, compressions, and correction of reversible causes instead of shocks.

The four Hs and four Ts: hypoxia, hypovolaemia, hypo or hyperkalaemia and metabolic disorders, hypothermia; thrombosis, tension pneumothorax, tamponade, toxins. Systematic search for these guides treatment during advanced life support.

Controlled cooling or strict avoidance of fever in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest, typically maintaining 32 to 37.5 degrees Celsius for at least 24 hours, to limit reperfusion brain injury.

Structured management after return of spontaneous circulation: airway and ventilation control, haemodynamic targets, treatment of the precipitating cause, glucose and seizure control, and neuroprognostication delayed until sedation has cleared.

Using history, serial high-sensitivity troponin, and electrocardiography to separate ST-elevation infarction, non-ST-elevation infarction, and unstable angina, which determines urgency of angiography and antiplatelet therapy.

A five-item tool scoring history, electrocardiogram, age, risk factors, and troponin from 0 to 10, used to identify low-risk chest pain patients suitable for early discharge with outpatient testing.

A strategy for major haemorrhage combining permissive hypotension, early balanced blood products over crystalloid, tranexamic acid, warming, and rapid control of bleeding source before definitive repair.

A pre-authorised, protocolised supply of packed red cells, plasma, and platelets in balanced ratios, with defined activation triggers, laboratory monitoring, and a planned end point to avoid unnecessary transfusion.

The self-reinforcing combination of hypothermia, acidosis, and coagulopathy that drives exsanguination in severely injured patients; modern descriptions add hypocalcaemia and call it the lethal diamond.

Raised pressure within a closed fascial compartment that compromises capillary perfusion and threatens muscle and nerve. Warning signs include pain out of proportion, pain on passive stretch, and tense swelling.

Serial documented assessment of pulses, capillary refill, colour, warmth, sensation, and motor function distal to a fracture or reduction, repeated after any cast, splint, or manipulation.

Five low-risk features: no midline tenderness, no neurological deficit, normal alertness, no intoxication, and no distracting injury. If all are present, imaging can be deferred in blunt trauma.

A three-step decision tool using high-risk factors, low-risk factors permitting safe range of motion, and inability to rotate the neck, to select blunt trauma patients who need cervical imaging.

Delivery of positive airway pressure through a tight-fitting mask, either continuous or bilevel, to support oxygenation and unload respiratory muscles in acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema and hypercapnic exacerbations.

Type 1 is hypoxaemia with normal or low carbon dioxide, typically from ventilation-perfusion mismatch. Type 2 is hypercapnia from alveolar hypoventilation, seen in exhaustion, obstruction, or neuromuscular weakness.

Ventilator settings using low tidal volumes around 6 mL per kg predicted body weight, limited plateau pressure, and adequate positive end-expiratory pressure to reduce ventilator-induced injury in acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Airway pressure maintained at end-expiration that recruits collapsed alveoli, improves oxygenation, and reduces atelectrauma, but can impair venous return and cause barotrauma at excessive levels.

The time from symptom onset within which intravenous thrombolysis is offered, generally up to 4.5 hours, with selected patients treated later using imaging-based selection of salvageable brain tissue.

Clot in a major intracranial artery such as the middle cerebral or basilar artery, producing severe deficits and a large threatened territory, often treatable by endovascular thrombectomy beyond thrombolysis windows.

A standardised 0 to 42 point examination of consciousness, gaze, visual fields, facial and limb power, coordination, sensation, language, and neglect used to grade severity and guide reperfusion decisions.

Continuous seizure activity, or repeated seizures without recovery of consciousness, lasting five minutes or more, requiring immediate benzodiazepine followed by a second-line anticonvulsant and treatment of the cause.

Elevated pressure within the rigid skull from oedema, haemorrhage, or mass, producing headache, vomiting, falling consciousness, and eventually herniation; managed with head elevation, osmotherapy, and urgent decompression.

A recognisable pattern of vital signs, pupils, skin, and mental state that points to a drug class, such as anticholinergic, cholinergic, opioid, sympathomimetic, or sedative-hypnotic poisoning.

Specific poison and its matching treatment, for example paracetamol with acetylcysteine, opioid with naloxone, organophosphate with atropine and pralidoxime, and methanol with fomepizole.

Low bicarbonate with a raised gap between measured cations and anions, suggesting accumulation of organic acids or toxins such as methanol, ethylene glycol, salicylate, or lactate.

The difference between measured and calculated serum osmolality, which rises when unmeasured alcohols such as methanol, ethylene glycol, or isopropanol are present in the blood.

Life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection, operationalised as a rise of two or more points in the sequential organ failure assessment score.

Sepsis with persisting hypotension requiring vasopressors to maintain mean arterial pressure of 65 mmHg or more, together with a lactate above 2 mmol per litre despite adequate fluid resuscitation.

A bedside screen scoring one point each for respiratory rate of 22 or more, altered mentation, and systolic pressure of 100 mmHg or less, used to flag patients at risk of poor outcome outside intensive care.

A first-impression tool judging appearance, work of breathing, and circulation to skin, allowing rapid triage of a child's illness severity before any contact or measurement.

Calculating drug and fluid doses from body weight in kilograms, using a length-based tape or age formula when weight is unknown, because fixed adult doses risk serious overdose or underdose in children.

Blood loss of 500 mL or more after vaginal birth, or 1000 mL or more after caesarean, or any loss causing haemodynamic instability, managed with uterine massage, uterotonics, tranexamic acid, and escalation.

Implantation outside the uterine cavity, usually in a fallopian tube, presenting with pain and bleeding; diagnosed by transvaginal ultrasound and serial human chorionic gonadotropin, and treated surgically when ruptured.

Focused bedside imaging of cardiac activity, pericardial fluid, and ventricular filling, used in arrest, shock, and penetrating chest trauma to answer narrow yes-or-no clinical questions quickly.

A rapid ultrasound protocol examining pericardial, pleural, and peritoneal spaces plus lung sliding for free fluid or air after injury, repeated when the patient deteriorates.

The mismatch between demand for emergency care and available beds or staff, measured by occupancy, waiting times, and patients boarding in corridors, and linked to worse outcomes and ambulance diversion.

A validated five-level system assigning priority from immediate to non-urgent based on presenting complaint and vital signs, so that limited resources reach the sickest first.

A written framework defining command roles, communication channels, surge capacity, and triggers for escalating response when a disaster or mass casualty event overwhelms routine operations.

Simple triage and rapid treatment: sorting casualties within seconds by ability to walk, respiratory rate, perfusion, and mental status into immediate, delayed, minor, and deceased categories.

A patient's voluntary authorisation of a procedure after receiving and understanding information about its nature, benefits, alternatives, and material risks, given by someone with decision-making capacity.

The ability to understand relevant information, appreciate its consequences, reason about options, and communicate a consistent choice; assessed per decision rather than as a global label.

The number of patients who must receive an intervention for one additional patient to benefit, calculated as the reciprocal of the absolute risk reduction; smaller values indicate greater clinical efficiency.

The range of values within which the true effect plausibly lies at a stated probability; a wide interval signals imprecision, and one crossing no effect means the study is inconclusive.