Emergency medicine clinics of North America
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Encountering a child with congenital heart disease after surgical palliation in the emergency department, specifically the single-ventricle or ventricular assist device, without a basic familiarity of these surgeries can be extremely anxiety provoking. Knowing what common conditions or complications may cause these children to visit the emergency department and how to stabilize will improve the chance for survival and is the premise for this article, regardless of practice setting.
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Emerg. Med. Clin. North Am. · Aug 2021
ReviewJust Breathe: Tips and Highlights for Managing Pediatric Respiratory Distress and Failure.
Anatomically, the airway is ever changing in size, anteroposterior alignment, and point of most narrow dimension. Special considerations regarding obesity, chronic and acute illness, underlying developmental abnormalities, and age can all affect preparation and intervention toward securing a definitive airway. ⋯ Emergency physicians should work toward minimizing risk of peri-intubation hypoxemia and arrest. With review of anatomic and physiologic principles in the setting of a practical approach toward evaluating and managing distress and failure, emergency physicians can successfully manage critical pediatric airway encounters.
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Emerg. Med. Clin. North Am. · Aug 2021
ReviewEar, Nose, Throat: Beyond Pharyngitis: Retropharyngeal Abscess, Peritonsillar Abscess, Epiglottitis, Bacterial Tracheitis, and Postoperative Tonsillectomy.
Ear, nose, and throat (ENT) emergencies presenting with a chief complaint of pharyngitis can be due to infection, trauma, or postprocedure complications. The entities described in this article include retropharyngeal abscess, peritonsillar abscess, epiglottitis, bacterial tracheitis, and post-tonsillectomy bleeding. This article provides the emergency physician with the tools needed to decipher between the mundane and the critical, variations in presentation, and their emergent management. All of them require early recognition for any airway compromise or obstruction in order to avoid serious complications.
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Older adults are frequently seen in the emergency department for genitourinary complaints, necessitating that emergency physicians are adept at managing a myriad of genitourinary emergencies. Geriatric patients may present with acute kidney injury, hematuria, or a urinary infection and aspects of how managing these presentations differs from their younger counterparts is emphasized. Older adults may also present with acute urinary retention or urinary incontinence as a result of genitourinary pathology or other systemic etiologies. Finally, genital complaints as they pertain to older adults are briefly highlighted with emphasis on emergent management and appropriate referrals.
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Emerg. Med. Clin. North Am. · May 2021
ReviewRapid Fire: Acute Brain Failure in Older Emergency Department Patients.
Delirium is common in older emergency department (ED) patients. Although associated with significant morbidity and mortality, it often goes unrecognized. ⋯ Management is aimed at identifying and treating the underlying cause. Meaningful improvements in delirium care can be achieved when prevention, identification, and management of older delirious ED patients is integrated by physicians and corresponding frameworks implemented at the health system level.