Emergency medicine clinics of North America
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Emerg. Med. Clin. North Am. · May 2002
ReviewMass casualty management of a large-scale bioterrorist event: an epidemiological approach that shapes triage decisions.
The threat of a BT event has catalyzed serious reflection on the troublesome issues that come with event management and triage. Such reflection has had the effect of multiplying the efforts to find solutions to what could become a catastrophic public health disaster. Management options are becoming more robust, as are reliable detection devices and rapid access to stockpiled antibiotics and vaccines. ⋯ Use a triage and management system that reflects the population (cohort) at risk, such as the epidemiologic based SEIRV triage framework. 4. Develop an organizational capacity that uses lateral decision-making skills, pre-hospital outpatient centers for triage-specific treatments, health information systems, and resource-driven hospital level pre-designated protocols appropriate for a surge of unprecedented proportions. Such standards of care, it is recommended, should be set at the local to federal levels and spelled out in existing incident-management system protocols.
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Emerg. Med. Clin. North Am. · Feb 2002
ReviewContemporary trends in pediatric sedation and analgesia.
The ability to provide safe, effective procedural sedation and analgesia is a necessary skill for physicians caring for the acutely ill or injured pediatric patient. They physician should be familiar with the agent(s) chosen, including dosage, duration, adverse effects, and contraindications. The choice of agent and regimen should be individualized for the patient and situation. Successful outcomes depend on performing careful pre- and post-sedation evaluations, following appropriate monitoring and equipment guidelines, and having the knowledge and skills to manage any adverse cardiorespiratory event.
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Although there are a variety of neurologic disease processes that the emergency physician should be aware of the most common of these include seizures, closed head injury, headache, and syncope. When one is evaluating a patient who has had a seizure, differentiating between febrile seizures, afebrile seizures, and SE helps to determine the extent of the work-up. Febrile seizures are typically benign, although a diagnosis of meningitis must not be missed. ⋯ Although vasovagal syncope is the most common cause of syncope, vigilance is required to identify those patients with a potentially fatal arrhythmia or with heart disease that predisposes to hypoperfusion. As such, all patients who present with syncope should have an ECG. Additional work-up studies are guided by the results of individual history and physical examination.
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This article updates research concerning the resuscitation of a pediatric patient. The topics discussed include the state of pediatric life support, the current guidelines, the management of those guidelines, and coping with death.
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Emerg. Med. Clin. North Am. · Feb 2002
ReviewContemporary approach to the emergency department management of pediatric asthma.
Asthma continues to be an enormous health problem and economic burden in US society. EDs probably will continue to provide a substantial amount of care for those affected by the disease. Pediatric asthma patients frequently are encountered in EDs. Emergency physicians must remain current in their approach to providing expert care while the management of acute asthma exacerbations continues to evolve, older therapies are challenged and new therapies are developed, tested, and implemented.