Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2011
Case ReportsDecontamination and enhanced elimination in sustained-release potassium chloride poisoning.
Potassium chloride poisoning can be potentially life-threatening, particularly in massive ingestions of sustained-release preparations. Profound hyperkalaemia, developing over several hours, can lead to cardiac arrhythmias and death. This case series reports three episodes of sustained-release potassium chloride poisoning in two individuals requiring whole bowel irrigation or haemodialysis. ⋯ The second case, in a child, illustrates the need for tertiary level paediatric expertise in managing this type of poisoning. Whole bowel irrigation with polyethylene glycol is a resource-intensive procedure most beneficial when large numbers of radio-opaque tablets are seen in the stomach. In cases where most of the tablet matter has already been absorbed, extracorporeal methods of rapidly reducing the total body burden of potassium, such as haemodialysis, might be life-saving.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2011
Predicting the impact on workload with the application of inpatient clinical review criteria into a paediatric emergency department.
Inpatient paediatric clinical observation charts that have predefined physiological criteria, which when reached might generate a mandatory medial review, are to be introduced into EDs in New South Wales. The present study estimated the increased workload of introducing these charts. ⋯ Individual units must decide where in the patient journey to introduce the charts for acute paediatric admissions based on the number of acute paediatric admissions and their severity as well as the availability and ability of staff to respond to calls.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2011
Multicenter StudyComparison of two clinical scoring systems for emergency department risk stratification of suspected acute coronary syndrome.
To compare two methods of risk stratification for suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in the ED. ⋯ The NHF/CSANZ guideline is superior to the TIMI risk score for risk stratification of suspected ACS in the ED.