The American journal of emergency medicine
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With the aging population, the number of older patients with multiple injuries is increasing. The aim of this study was to understand the patterns and outcomes of older patients admitted to a major trauma centre in Hong Kong from 2006 to 2015, and investigate the performance of the trauma team activation (TTA) criteria for these elderly patients. ⋯ There is a need to consider alternative TTA criteria for our geriatric trauma population, and to more clearly define the process and standards of care in Hong Kong.
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We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the "Timed Up and Go" (TUG) and the Chair test as screening tools in the Emergency Department (ED), stratified by sex. ⋯ There were no sex specific significant differences in TUG or Chair test screening performance. Neither test performed well as a screening tool for future falls in the elderly in the ED setting.
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Comparative Study
Injuries associated with hoverboard use: A review of the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System.
Hoverboards have become popular since they became available in 2015. We seek to provide an estimate of the number of injuries in the United States for 2015 and 2016, and to evaluate differences between adult and pediatric injury complexes. ⋯ Emergency department (ED) visits for hoverboard related injuries appear to be increasing. Pediatric patients are more at risk for hoverboard related injuries than adults and almost 6% of ED visits involved critical injuries, highlighting that hoverboards may be more dangerous than previously recognized.
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Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been shown to decrease mortality in adult trauma patients with or at significant risk of hemorrhage when administered within 3 h of injury. The use and appropriateness of TXA in adult trauma patients presenting to Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) was investigated. ⋯ III STUDY TYPE: Therapeutic.
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Homelessness is a critical public health issue and socioeconomic epidemic associated with a disproportionate burden of disease and significant decrease in life expectancy. We compared emergency care utilization between individuals with documented homelessness to those enrolled in Medicaid without documented homelessness. ⋯ Compared to non-homeless Medicaid patients, patients with documented homelessness were over seven times more likely to return to the ED within 30 days and over eleven times more likely to return to the ED in two years.