Diving is a popular activity. Besides enjoying the water, it is good to be aware of the medical problems that may arise during a dive. We can recommend reading the article “Updates in Decompression Illness”, by Pollock and Buteau which was published this month. Abstract Decompression sickness and arterial gas embolism, collectively known as decompression […]

Last week, the April edition of the AWLS course took place. The 32 enthusiastic participants have been lucky with the sunny weather. The days were filled with theory and practical sessions led by instructors Floris, Myriam, Bob and Mark. The candidates competed against each other during fire making competition in the evening. The course ended […]

Medical resources routinely used for intravenous hydration and resuscitation of critically ill patients may be limited in remote regions of the world. When faced with these shortages, physicians have had to improvise with the available resources, or simply do without. Campbell-Falck at al report the successful use of coconut water as a short-term intravenous hydration […]

You can find the new guidelines for prevention and management of avalanche and nonavalanche snow burial accidents in the latest edition of Wilderness & Environmental Medicine. Important recommendations on prevention, rescue and resuscitation are made. The authors state that avalanche avoidance should be the main method to mitigate risk of injury and death. If an avalanche incident […]

Daniëlle van Winden, A&E trainee (Reinier de Graaf hospital, The Netherlands) about her work for the Boat Refugee Foundation. In October 2016, I worked as a doctor for the Boat Refugee Foundation on a rescue boat on the Mediterranean sea. Hundreds of migrants and refugees try to cross this sea from Libya to Italy on […]