Annals of emergency medicine
-
The optimal timing to begin stroke prevention therapy in patients being discharged from an emergency department (ED) with atrial fibrillation is not known. We determined whether eligible patients who were provided with an ED prescription for oral anticoagulation had better rates of long-term anticoagulation use than eligible patients who were referred to their primary care provider for further care. ⋯ Among ED patients who met criteria for guideline-recommended use of stroke prevention therapy, those who received an initial prescription in the ED had a higher frequency of long-term warfarin use than those for whom the decision to initiate therapy was referred to another care provider.
-
Cricothyrotomy is a rare but crucial procedure in the armamentarium of the emergency physician. The infrequency with which it is performed has led to a reliance on models, simulators, and animals in resident education, but each of these methods has unique drawbacks. ⋯ Obtaining consent maintains the integrity of the relationship among the physician, the deceased, the family, and the community and need not prohibit performing procedures on the newly dead for the purpose of resident education. Thus, a balanced approach to resident instruction that incorporates the use of the deceased in addition to other methods of instruction seems both prudent and feasible.