Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2021
Observational StudyOutcomes of laceration suture repair in the emergency department.
To assess patient satisfaction with laceration management, post-ED care, cosmesis and complication rates. ⋯ Most patients are very satisfied with their laceration management. However, there is scope for improvement, especially for follow-up and wound care advice. Complications are infrequent and not associated with overall satisfaction.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2021
To intubate or not to intubate? Predictors of inhalation injury in burn-injured patients before arrival at the burn centre.
Inhalation injury occurs in approximately 10-20% of burn patients and is associated with increased mortality. There is no clear method of identifying patients at risk of inhalation injury or requiring intubation in the pre-hospital setting. Our objective was to identify pre-burn centre factors associated with inhalation injury confirmed on bronchoscopy, and to develop a prognostic model for inhalation injury. ⋯ A model to predict inhalation injury in burn-injured patients was developed with excellent discrimination. This model requires prospective testing but could form an integral part of clinician decision-making.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2021
Lost bed capacity in emergency departments: A descriptive analysis and data visualisation exploration.
To map utilisation of bed resources within an ED over time, in order to determine the proportions of patient stay spent receiving emergency care versus non-emergent care. To produce visualisations that effectively convey this bed utilisation. ⋯ A considerable proportion of ED length of stay is because of patients remaining in an ED bed after their emergency care is concluded. Absolute time is much greater for admitted patients than for discharged patients, and therefore efforts to reduce LBC are likely to reduce overall ED length of stay. LBC heatmaps may provide an intuitively useful, potentially automated tool to understand these problems.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2021
Lunacy in a tertiary emergency department: A 3-year cohort study of the association between moon cycles and occupational violence and aggression.
Occupational violence and aggression (OVA) in the ED is an issue of global concern and increasing incidence. The empirical evidence for the relationship between the lunar cycle and 'lunatics' remains equivocal. The present study aims to examine the association between OVA in ED and the full moon (FM). ⋯ Contrary to traditional beliefs, the FQ and TQ of the lunar cycle but not the FM were associated with OVA. This highlights a relatively unexplored relationship that has previously been overshadowed by the FM in the literature. Prediction models of violence in the ED could consider incorporating the FQ and TQ of the lunar cycle in their models.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2021
An impact of national lockdown towards emergency department visits and admission rates during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand: A hospital-based study.
To evaluate the impact of the national lockdown because of the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic towards the ED visits and admission rates in Thailand. ⋯ The national lockdown in Thailand was associated with a significant reduction in average daily ED visits across traumatic and non-traumatic patients. Communication from healthcare professionals and public health officers is necessary to reinforce the importance of timely ED visits for acute health conditions.