ENT kits

[ReD]

Do any of you carry any sort of ENT kit either in your personal jump bag or have them at work in pre-hospital settings?

Something like this:

http://www.narescue.com/Basic-Field-Corpsman-Kit--P68C8.aspx

They can be found pretty cheap online, and more Fluorescein Strips can be bought for ~$12/box of 100

Just curious. I'm thinking of getting one, I think it would be very helpful for eye injuries and removing foreign bodies from eyes & wounds etc.

ya'lls opinions & thoughts?

[akroeze]

Do your protocols actually allow you to remove a foreign object that is embedded into the eye?

Let the guys with all the letters do it is what I think

[Ridryder 911]

No, nor I suggest it as well. Fluorescein strips are okay if you have a black light to detect foreign bodies and and a slit lamp to detect more details. This is out of the scope of training or education level of EMS personal. As well, I would not suggest to remove debris unless it can be done by simplistic techniques (inverted eye lid..etc) to prevent cornea abrasions.

Flushing with saline and irrigation lenses such as Morgans lenses. I do wish more services was able to carry anesthetizing med.'s for eyes and maybe eye "lube' to prevent cornea from drying out.

R/r 911

[EMS49393]

This is an ophthamology kit. For your future reference, ENT stands for "ears, nose, and throat."

[akflightmedic]

Red,

It would be a total waste of money and an area of practice that you have no business delving into. With eye injuries, it is best to go BLS all the way and transport to the specialists. I would never dream of removing something that was embedded in the eye stateside and please keep in mind I do remote medicine and have actually taken numerous courses on such. Eye sight is too precious to tinker with in the field prehospitally in the US.

There is no reason for you to be staining eyes looking for corneal abrasions or anything else for that matter. You should flush repeatedly and bandage both eyes and transport. Thats it. This goes for ALS and BLS.

As an EMT, I would never have considered purchasing nor using an opthamology kit or an ENT kit for use in the field. It just is not within your scope. Do you have a good grasp on the anatomy? Do you know what is normal and what isn't? Do you even know all the minute little things to look for to conduct a proper assessment? There is way more to it than staining the eye and looking at it under a cobalt light.

Even if you did know what to look for and how to conduct a proper exam, there is no justification for you to do so prehospitally in the CONUS at your level.

While I appreciate your enthusiasm for the job, this is a bit much.

[ReD]

ok, i scratched that idea off my list of things to look into.

next up, I-Stat machine!!!!!!!

......not really.

This is an ophthamology kit. For your future reference, ENT stands for "ears, nose, and throat."

The kit I linked to contains an otoscopic head, and a fiber optic light bender, thus allowing examination of the Ears, Nose, and Throat, as well as the eyes.

The "Deluxe" kit actually contains an Ophthalmoscope.