The American journal of emergency medicine
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Observational Study
Treatment of opioid and alcohol withdrawal in a cohort of emergency department patients.
The safety of combining buprenorphine with a benzodiazepine or barbiturate in the treatment of concurrent alcohol and opioid withdrawal has not been well established. In this study we examine a cohort of patients treated with buprenorphine and phenobarbital or benzodiazepines for co-occurring opioid and alcohol withdrawal. ⋯ We describe a cohort of patients treated for opioid and alcohol withdrawal in the ED. There were no serious adverse events related to the medications used to treat opioid or alcohol withdrawal. Further work should assess optimal use of medical therapy for opioid and alcohol withdrawal and the transition to maintenance treatment for substance use disorders.
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Septic arthritis is an important but difficult to make diagnosis that leads to significant morbidity and mortality. Joint effusion is generally accepted to be a highly sensitive finding in septic arthritis; however, final diagnosis requires synovial fluid studies. Without a significant joint effusion, it is difficult to obtain synovial fluid. ⋯ Subsequent joint washout revealed purulent synovial fluid that grew out the same bacteria. This case emphasizes the importance of obtaining synovial fluid to evaluate for septic arthritis, even when joint effusion is absent. Ultrasound guidance can facilitate this.
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Observational Study
Impact of the modified SESAME ultrasound protocol implementation on patients with cardiac arrest in the emergency department.
Point-of-care (POC) ultrasound protocols are commonly used for the initial management of patients with cardiac arrest in the emergency department (ED). However, there is little published evidence regarding any mortality benefit. We compared and studied the effect of implementation of the modified SESAME protocol in terms of clinical outcomes and resuscitation management. ⋯ We did not discover any significant survival benefits associated with the implementation of the modified SESAME protocol; however, early diagnosis of specific pathologies (pericardial effusion, possible pulmonary embolism, tension pneumothorax, and hypovolemia) and accordingly a direct increase in the resuscitation management were seen in this study. Future studies with larger sample sizes are required to examine the clinical outcomes as well as to identify the most effective POC ultrasonography protocols for non-traumatic cardiac arrests.