Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2012
Case ReportsToxic cocktail: methanol poisoning in a tourist to Indonesia.
Methanol poisoning has become very uncommon in Australasia with regulations that have reduced its retail availability. This report describes a young tourist who developed sudden onset visual failure and rapid breathing 2 days after ingestion of a complimentary local drink called Arrack when travelling in Indonesia. ⋯ The cocktail was consumed at a popular tourist bar but is likely to have been mixed from home-brewed or 'moonshine' alcohol tainted with methanol. The aetiology of methanol poisoning, its optic toxicology and therapeutic measures are discussed, as is the concerning number of methanol poisoning cases among tourists to Indonesia over recent years.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2012
Senior Streaming Assessment Further Evaluation after Triage zone: a novel model of care encompassing various emergency department throughput measures.
Access block (AB) and hospital overcrowding adversely affect ED functionality. ED throughput measures have been described in the literature with positive impacts on key performance indicators (KPIs)--time to first seen, did-not-wait rates, off-stretcher times for ambulances and ED length of stay figures. In this study, we aimed to assess the impact of a new model of care, the Senior Streaming Assessment Further Evaluation after Triage (SAFE-T) zone concept on ED performance indicators and statistical outcomes. ⋯ The SAFE-T zone model of care involving multiple ED throughput measures achieved improvements in ED performance despite AB and hospital overcrowding.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2012
Case ReportsAcute paraspinal compartment syndrome as an unusual cause of severe low back pain.
This report describes a case of acute paraspinal compartment syndrome in a 25-year-old man. The diagnosis was significantly delayed, perhaps to some extent because of the rarity of the condition. ⋯ The discussion addresses an unusual site for compartment syndrome and a diagnosis not commonly considered in the differential of low back pain. Treatment options are discussed and we review previous published case reports.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2012
Impact of a government triple zero awareness campaign on emergency department patient characteristics.
To evaluate the impact of a government triple zero community awareness campaign on the characteristics of patients attending an ED. ⋯ The campaign had no significant impact on the arrival mode of the patients. After the campaign, the illness acuity of the patients decreased, whereas the illness severity of the patients increased.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2012
Case ReportsTerson's syndrome: subarachnoid haemorrhage presenting as sudden visual loss.
Subarachnoid haemorrhage is a condition that usually presents with headache and altered mental state. We report the case of a 50-year-old man with subarachnoid haemorrhage who presented with Terson's syndrome. This is a condition where there is retinal or vitreous haemorrhage secondary to subarachnoid or subdural haemorrhage.