Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2019
Multicenter Study Observational StudyAccuracy of clinician gestalt in diagnosing appendicitis in children presenting to the emergency department.
Abdominal pain is a common paediatric presentation to the ED. Accurate diagnosis of acute appendicitis is challenging, with the best-performing clinical scoring systems having sensitivities between 72% and 100%. The aim of this study is to assess the diagnostic accuracy of clinician gestalt according to seniority in diagnosing paediatric acute appendicitis in ED. ⋯ The diagnostic accuracy of ED clinician gestalt in paediatric appendicitis is comparable to current clinical scoring systems irrespective of seniority.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2019
ReviewReview article: Goals-of-care discussions for adult patients nearing end of life in emergency departments: A systematic review.
Goals-of-care discussions at end-of-life are associated with increased patient satisfaction and reduced treatment burdens, reduced family and healthcare worker distress and healthcare costs, while achieving equal life-expectancy. It is unclear how goals-of-care discussions should occur. The objective of the study was to determine which patients could benefit, requirements, content, documentation, and harms and benefits of emergency medicine goals-of-care discussions. ⋯ Most studies were of moderate quality only, outcomes were not standardised and sample sizes were small. 'Goals-of-care' is used inconsistently across the literature. This is the first systematic review regarding goals-of-care discussions in EDs. Further research is needed on all aspects of these conversations.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2019
Methamphetamine presentations to an emergency department: Management and complications.
There is little recent published data characterising methamphetamine intoxication. The present study aims to describe the clinical effects, management, complications and disposition of patients with methamphetamine exposure. ⋯ The main toxicity seen with methamphetamines is acute behavioural disturbance, which is managed well with sedation. Complications, apart from rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney injury, are rare. Most patients are managed within the ED and discharged home.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2019
Improving emergency department trauma care in Fiji: Implementing and assessing the trauma call system.
The trauma team process was recently implemented at the Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Hospital, Suva. This study audits the trauma call procedure at the hospital over a period of 12 months. ⋯ This was a severely injured cohort of patients with a high mortality rate. The rate of missed calls was not assessed in this study. Time to CT scan could be improved with an onsite radiographer. Time to team assembly could be improved with trauma team training and early notification from pre-hospital providers. There is a need to continue to monitor and refine the trauma call process and to extend data capture to measure injury severity and outcomes.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2019
Rule of 4's: Safe and effective pleural decompression and chest drain insertion in severely injured children.
The intersecting scenarios of multi-trauma, thoracic injury and traumatic cardiac arrest present some of the most demanding moments in paediatric trauma. For these reasons, decision support through teamwork, checklists, technology and guidelines are central to ensuring quality paediatric trauma care. The 'Rule of 4's' is a simple aide-memoire, which guides clinicians of all grades, expertise and distractedness in a reliable approach to injured children who require safe and effective emergency pleural decompression and timely insertion of a chest drain. The Rule of 4's enables these important therapeutic goals to be met through: (i) four steps in a 'good plan'; (ii) fourth (or fifth) intercostal space as the basis for siting a 'good hole'; (iii) 4× uncuffed endotracheal tube size (4× [age/4 + 4]) to guide selection of a 'good tube'; and (iv) 4 cm mark for a 'good stop' to ensure the drain is in far enough but not too far.