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Characteristics and Outcomes of Pediatric Patients With a Ventricular Assist Device Presenting to the Emergency Department
Conclusions Among subjects in a single outpatient pediatric VAD program presenting to the ED, the most common complaints were abdominal pain/vomiting, fever, and headache. The most common adverse events were major infection and right heart failure. Subjects had a high rate of ED utilization and hospital admission.
Source: Pediatric Emergency Care - February 1, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Original Research Article Source Type: research

Diagnosis and management of acute aortic syndromes in the emergency department
AbstractAcute aortic syndromes (AASs) are deadly cardiovascular emergencies involving the thoracic aorta. AASs are relatively rare conditions, have unspecific signs and symptoms (including truncal pain, syncope, neurologic deficit and limb ischemia) and require contrast-enhanced tomography angiography (CTA) of the chest and abdomen for conclusive diagnosis and subsequent therapeutic planning. In the Emergency Department (ED), most patients with potential signs/symptoms of AASs are finally found affected by other alternative diagnoses. Hence, misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis of AASs are major concerns. In critically ill p...
Source: Internal and Emergency Medicine - April 30, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Source Type: research

Fool Me Once: An Uncommon Presentation of PE
​BY FREDDIE IRIZARRY-DELGADO; VAROON KAKAIYA; & AHMED RAZIUDDIN, MDAn 86-year-old African-American woman was brought to the ED by her daughter after two days of nutritional neglect, abdominal pain, and altered mental status. Her daughter said her mother felt lightheaded, appeared dehydrated, and vomited nonbilious watery fluid once. The patient had a history of diabetes mellitus type 2, DVT/PE, dementia, and early signs of parkinsonism.Her vital signs were remarkable only for tachypnea (24 bpm). Her troponin I was markedly elevated at 1.7 ng/mL. A D-dimer was ordered because of her history of unprovoked DVT/PE, and i...
Source: The Case Files - November 27, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: research

Ditch the Machine to Improve Accuracy in Blood Pressure Measurement and Diagnostics
Conclusion For the patient in this case, the decision to forego the convenience of a machine in favor of the skills of a knowledgeable paramedic was lifesaving. Much like the comparison often drawn between the old-fashioned barbell and more sophisticated exercise machines, newer, more complex, and more expensive might make a process more comfortable, but doesn’t always equate to superior results. As we surrender more and more of our hands-on skills to the ease of automated technology, we risk more than the loss of the aptitudes that form the foundation of sound patient assessment—we place our patients in jeopardy of mi...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - October 24, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Mark Rock, NRP Tags: Exclusive Articles Cardiac & Resuscitation Source Type: news

A Pregnancy Complication to Look out for even after Pregnancy
​BY GREGORY TAYLOR, DO, & SHERIF G. EL-ALAYLI, DOA 30-year-old G5P3 presented to the ED with bilateral lower-extremity edema and headache for three days. She presented one week after an uncomplicated full-term vaginal delivery with an unremarkable pregnancy course and no prior requirement for antihypertensive therapy. The headache was described as achy to sharp, with associated photophobia. She also noted occasional vaginal spotting, which was common a few weeks after delivery. She denied any chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, abdominal pain, or any other symptoms. She admitted to occasional mild cr...
Source: The Case Files - August 28, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: research

Looking Past Dementia Reveals Hidden Life Threats
Conclusion Acute delirium is commonly underdiagnosed, and can be masked by chronic alterations in cognition and mentation. Delirium has many causes, and can be assessed using the acronym DELIRIUM. The most common presentations suggesting delirium over dementia are short-term memory loss, rapid fluctuation in condition, acute alteration, and a condition present that may be responsible for delirium. Management includes searching for causes of acute alteration in mental status, negating environmental factors of delirium, and—only when necessary—reducing the patient’s threat to themselves or providers by using butyrophen...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - August 13, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Joseph K. Mesches, NRP, FP-C Tags: Exclusive Articles Patient Care Source Type: news

Not as Simple as Canker Sores
BY ​NANA P. MATSUMOTO, & DEREK MEEKS, DO​​A 16-year-old boy presented to a rural ED with a swollen jaw, painful blisters in the mouth, and earache for the past day. One week before, he had a fever with chills, sore throat, and dry coughs. He was not taking any medications, and his immunizations were up-to-date. He had a mild learning disorder but no significant past medical or surgical history.​An apthous ulcer, the most common and one of the earliest signs of Behçet's disease.The patient's vital signs were within normal limits, and his physical examination revealed anterior cervical lymphadenopathy, sinus con...
Source: The Case Files - October 11, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: research

Analgesia in Neurocritical Care: An International Survey and Practice Audit*
Conclusions: Opiates and acetaminophen are preferred analgesic agents, and gabapentin is a contextual third choice, in neurocritically ill patients. Other agents are rarely prescribed. The discordance in physician self-reports and objective audits suggest that pain management optimization studies are warranted.
Source: Critical Care Medicine - April 16, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Neurologic Critical Care Source Type: research

Perceived Appropriateness of Shared Decision‐Making in the Emergency Department: A Survey Study
ConclusionsAcceptance of SDM among emergency physicians appears to be strong across management categories (diagnostic testing, treatment, and disposition) and in a variety of clinical scenarios. SDM is perceived by most EPs to be medicolegally protective.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Source: Academic Emergency Medicine - January 25, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Marc A. Probst, Hemal K. Kanzaria, Dominick L. Frosch, Erik P. Hess, Gary Winkel, Ka Ming Ngai, Lynne D. Richardson Tags: Original Contribution Source Type: research

Perceived Appropriateness of Shared Decision-Making in the Emergency Department: A Survey Study.
CONCLUSIONS: Acceptance of SDM among emergency physicians appears to be strong across management categories (diagnostic testing, treatment, and disposition) and in a variety of clinical scenarios. SDM is perceived by most EPs to be medicolegally protective. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. PMID: 26806170 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Accident and Emergency Nursing - January 25, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Probst MA, Kanzaria HK, Frosch DL, Hess EP, Winkel G, Ngai KM, Richardson LD Tags: Acad Emerg Med Source Type: research

Raising the bar for exclusion of acute venous thromboembolism in the emergency department
Conclusion Retrospective application of an age adjusted d-dimer cut point for exclusion of VTE in ths cohort significantly increased specificity with limited impact on sensitivity. Caveats include those patients with longstanding symptoms and those with isolated distal deep vein thrombosis. UK centres should consider further local validation and trial adoption.
Source: Emergency Medicine Journal - November 23, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Horner, D., Wells, S., Bonnici, K., Reeves, N., Parris, R. Tags: Drugs: cardiovascular system, Pain (neurology), Stroke, Venous thromboembolism, Clinical diagnostic tests RCEM FREE PAPERS Source Type: research

Neurological disorders in the emergency centre of the Douala General Hospital, Cameroon: A cross-sectional study
Conclusion Neurological disorders are common in the emergency centre of the DGH. Aetiologies are diverse and in-hospital mortality is high. This highlights the need to organize neurologist calls at the EC and/or to improve the human resources capacity through regular training and evaluation.
Source: African Journal of Emergency Medicine - July 11, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Source Type: research

Acute Aortic Emergencies—Part 2 Aortic Dissections
Patients with aortic disease are some of the highest acuity patients that emergency clinicians encounter. Dissection is the most common aortic catastrophe and involves separation of the aortic layers in a longitudinal fashion leading to diminished perfusion and systemic ischemia. Characteristics of pain, branch vessel involvement, and incidence lead to an understanding of patient presentation, morbidity, and mortality. Diagnosis, selection of diagnostic studies, the degree of preoperative ischemia, and risk of operative mortality can be accomplished using validated clinical decision tools. Emergency interventions are guide...
Source: Advanced Emergency Nursing Journal - January 1, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Cases of Note Source Type: research