Inadvertent poisoning with an opiate in the prehospital setting is unlikely, especially with routine personal protective equipment (gloves).

In patients with penetrating trauma, it was better to allow prehospital hypotension and hasten transport for definitive repair prior to beginning volume resuscitation than to try to normalize vital signs in the field by giving IV fluid.

According to this large systematic review, in adults a 30:2 compression to ventilation ratio was better than 15:2.  For kids, either ratio was better than compression only CPR, except under 1 year in which ventilations did not improve outcome beyond compression-only.

Delayed ROSC may occur after cessation of CPR - the so called Lazarus phenomenon.  The incidence is around 6/1000 cases and usually occurred within 3-8 minutes after CPR cessation.  All patients eventually died; 4 of 5 had PEA. It may be wise to allow 10 minutes before pronouncing death (or 4 days if the patient is actually named Lazarus).

Gasping during cardiac arrest was associated with improved neurologically intact survival.  The practical take-home is to avoid premature cessation of CPR if any signs of gasping or agonal respirations are present and to avoid suppression of spontaneous gasping during CPR.

Outcome in patients with traumatic brain injury was better in patients with prehospital intubation, but most of the intubations were performed by air transport crews.

Use of a supraglottic airway (SGA) was associated with improved survival with a good neurological outcome.

Numerous observational studies have suggested that prehospital intubation (PHI) (in this case of trauma patients) was associated with greater mortality than when it was done in the ED, and this systematic review indicated the same thing.

The universal basic life support termination of resuscitation (BLS-TOR) rule was effective in reducing futile transports in a rural EMS system.

Prehopital ARDSnet ventilation strategies appear to reduce mortality, ICU length of stay, and days on the ventilator.