From the Editor-in-Chief



Welcome to the latest issue of the Middle East Journal of Emergency Medicine. As you may remember from our last issue, we promised you would see a few changes to the MEJEM. You may already have noticed some of them as we move from glossy to archive friendly paper, and a more modern cover. We are also very pleased to advise you that both the online version of the MEJEM and the Journal have been allocated their very own ISSN Numbers (ISSN 1995-4522 and 1729-6455, respectively). Don’t forget, we are also currently indexed by both the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Index Medicus and Elsevier Bibliographic Databases.

This issue is packed full of stimulating and varied articles from all around the region. We start with two reviews. The first helps us to understand the intricacies of managing a patient with atrial fibrillation in the emergency department, whilst the second one invites us to consider the epidemiological approaches to disasters and emergencies. Our original studies cover a number of very different topics this issue. Personally, I found the article regarding pre-hospital care and gunshot injuries so very sad when, as the author points out, some simple steps could make a considerable impact in reducing the loss of life to these terrible instruments of violence.

The case reports in this issue highlight once again the breadth of diversity that we meet in medicine. The article regarding abdominal cocoon makes for fascinating reading and the reconstruction of a six year old’s face makes one feel proud to be a surgeon and able to improve the quality of life in such a way.

We end this issue with an opportunity to brush up on our CME studies, with a look at radiocontrast media reactions, and then a chance to test ourselves in our regular quiz feature.

I hope you will agree that we have had an excellent standard of articles in this issue and I am looking to offer you more high quality contributions in our forthcoming issues. If you are not yet a subscriber, why not take out a subscription today? It is 100% free of charge! If you have an opinion on anything connected with this issue, please drop us a line, we will be delighted to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Dr Abdulwahab Al Musleh, MD, FRCS (I), CABS
Editor-in-Chief