The American journal of emergency medicine
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Letter Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Comparison of exchange of laryngeal mask airway and Igel for tracheal tube using Eschmann Tracheal Tube Introducer during simulated resuscitation.
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Physiological parameters are crucial for the caring of trauma patients. There is a significant loss of prehospital vital signs data of patients during handover between prehospital and in-hospital teams. Effective strategies for reducing the loss remain a challenging research area. We tested whether the newly developed electronic automated prehospital vital signs chart sharing system would increase the amount of prehospital vital signs data shared with a remote trauma center prior to hospital arrival. ⋯ Vital signs data collected during ambulance transfer via patient monitors could be automatically converted to easily visible patient charts and effectively shared with the remote trauma center prior to hospital arrival. The prehospital vital signs chart sharing system increased the number of precise vital signs shared prior to patient arrival at the hospital, which can potentially contribute to better trauma care without increasing labor and reduce information loss during clinical handover.
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Observational Study
Who is prescribing controlled medications to patients who die of prescription drug abuse?
Prescription drug-related fatalities remain a significant issue in the United States, yet there is a relative lack of knowledge on the specialty-specific prescription patterns for drug-related deaths. ⋯ Emergency physicians appear to provide fewer prescriptions to those patients who die due to prescription drugs. Emergency physicians do, however, account for a significant proportion of total providers in this study. These results highlight the need to use Prescription Drug Monitoring Program data to closely monitor prescription patterns and to intervene when necessary.
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Case Reports
Drinking to near death-acute water intoxication leading to neurogenic stunned myocardium: a case report.
Neurogenic stunned myocardium is a rare disease entity that has been typically described as a consequence of subarachnoid hemorrhage and, less commonly, seizures. Here we describe a case of a healthy young woman who drank excessive free water causing acute hyponatremia complicated by cerebral edema and seizure, leading to cardiogenic shock from neurogenic stunned myocardium. Two days later, she had complete return of her normal cardiac function.
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Medical technology has impacted the overall life expectancy. Many conditions traditionally considered fatal are now curable. Surviving chronic diseases and aging of the population have increased the number of people with chronic pain. ⋯ The magnets in the laptop speakers may have caused the rotor of the pump motor to stall during the computer use, and frequent stall has caused symptoms of withdrawal. No other mechanical failures were found. The patient was discharged home after the symptoms resolved, and the pump was reprogrammed.