Annals of emergency medicine
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A 65-year-old woman with a two-day history of progressive back pain presented with acute dyspnea, tachypnea, hypotension, and tachycardia. The patient was being treated for chronic obstructive lung disease and long-standing hypertension. She evidenced unilateral diminished breath sounds and wheezing. ⋯ A hemothorax was confirmed by thoracentesis, and a 7-cm descending thoracic aortic aneurysm was demonstrated by angiography. The patient underwent successful surgical resection and Dacron graft repair of the aneurysm. This case emphasizes the need for maintaining a high index of suspicion for atypical presentations of ruptured thoracic aneurysms and for using diagnostic thoracentesis in pleural effusions of unknown etiology.
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The use of the emergency IV contrast-enhanced abdominal computed tomography (CT) scanning was evaluated in 90 pediatric patients sustaining blunt abdominal trauma. Medical records, CT scans, and operative and postmortem reports, when applicable, were reviewed retrospectively. ⋯ Similarly, the (unplanned) surgery rate in the "negative" scan cases was low (one of 57). Abdominal CT scans cannot be relied on to consistently diagnose gastrointestinal perforation or pancreatic injury.
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A case of a patient with an alkaline chemical burn to the face from the misuse of the aerosol form of an oven cleaner is presented. The low concentration of sodium hydroxide and lack of early pain delayed the patient's presentation to the emergency department for two hours. After this delay in seeking treatment, continuous irrigation in the ED did little to modify the pH of the patient's injured skin. Thus, she developed a full-thickness alkaline burn that eventually required skin grafting.
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Translaryngeal jet ventilation has been proven an effective emergency airway alternative. However, confusion exists as to the proper cannulae and oxygen sources for this technique. Our study was designed to determine the delivered volumes of gas using cannulae and oxygen sources recommended in previous reports on translaryngeal jet ventilation. ⋯ Our observations were consistent with previous clinical studies and suggest that standard translaryngeal jet ventilation cannulae (12 to 16 gauge) must be connected to an oxygen source of 50 psi in apneic adults. Demand-valve devices do not provide sufficient driving pressures for these cannulae. A cannula of 4 mm ID should be placed if only a bag-valve device is available for ventilation.
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Our study was performed to determine the pattern of arterial, venous, and cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) acidosis in a canine model of cardiac arrest and resuscitation; and the effect of bicarbonate treatment on arterial, venous, and CSF acidosis. Animals were instrumented to sample arterial blood, mixed venous blood, and CSF through a cisternal catheter. Following six minutes of ventricular fibrillation, manual CPR efforts were begun and continued for 30 minutes of cardiac arrest. ⋯ This higher pH occurred despite a concomitant increase in arterial (31 +/- 10 vs 19 +/- 9 mm Hg at 27 minutes; 31 +/- 9 vs 10 +/- 8 at 30 minutes) and venous (104 +/- 30 vs 63 +/- 10 mm Hg at 24 minutes) pCO2. CSF analysis showed a gradually worsening acidosis. However, CSF pH (7.12 +/- 0.14 vs 7.16 +/- 0.23 at 30 minutes) and pCO2 were not significantly changed by the administration of bicarbonate.