Emergency medicine clinics of North America
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Undifferentiated patients in respiratory distress require immediate attention in the emergency department. Using a thorough history and clinical examination, clinicians can determine the most likely causes of dyspnea. Understanding the pathophysiology of the most common diseases contributing to dyspnea guides rational testing and informed, expedited treatment decisions.
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Pulmonary ultrasound continues to develop and is ideally suited for the evaluation and treatment of respiratory emergencies. It is portable, can be performed rapidly, has no ionizing radiation, and is highly sensitive and specific for the diagnosis of pneumothorax, pneumonia, pulmonary edema, and free fluid in the chest.
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Acute dyspnea in older patients is a common presentation to the emergency department. Acute dyspnea in older adults is often the consequence of multiple overlapping disorders, such as pneumonia precipitating acute heart failure. Emergency physicians must be comfortable managing patients with acute dyspnea of uncertain cause and varying goals of care. In addition to the important role noninvasive ventilation (NIV) plays in full resuscitation, NIV can be useful as a method of providing supportive or nearly fully supportive care while more information is gathered from the patients and their loved ones.
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Emerg. Med. Clin. North Am. · Feb 2016
ReviewEarly Treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is defined by acute diffuse inflammatory lung injury invoked by a variety of systemic or pulmonary insults. Despite medical progress in management, mortality remains 27% to 45%. Patients with ARDS should be managed with low tidal volume ventilation. ⋯ Prone positioning and neuromuscular blockers reduce mortality in some patients. Early management of ARDS is relevant to emergency medicine. Identifying ARDS patients who should be transferred to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation center is an important task for emergency providers.
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Emerg. Med. Clin. North Am. · Feb 2016
ReviewManagement of Acute Exacerbation of Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in the Emergency Department.
Acute asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations are the most common respiratory diseases requiring emergent medical evaluation and treatment. Asthma and COPD are chronic, debilitating disease processes that have been differentiated traditionally by the presence or absence of reversible airflow obstruction. Asthma and COPD exacerbations impose an enormous economic burden on the US health care budget. In daily clinical practice, it is difficult to differentiate these 2 obstructive processes based on their symptoms, and on their nearly identical acute treatment strategies; major differences are important when discussing anatomic sites involved, long-term prognosis, and the nature of inflammatory markers.