The American journal of emergency medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Virtual reality distraction during pediatric intravenous line placement in the emergency department: A prospective randomized comparison study.
To evaluate the efficacy of virtual reality distraction (VR) during intravenous line (IV) placement in a pediatric emergency department to increase first-attempt IV success. Secondary endpoints included median time to successful IV placement, patient pain and anxiety scores, and an evaluation of characteristics of patients in whom VR is well tolerated. ⋯ VR distraction for IV placement in the Pediatric Emergency Department shows similar efficacy to standard distraction techniques and appears to be well tolerated.
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Observational Study
The effect of mild hypercapnia on hospital mortality after cardiac arrest may be modified by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The main objective was to evaluate the effect of carbon dioxide on hospital mortality in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and non-COPD patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). ⋯ The effect of carbon dioxide on hospital mortality differed between COPD and non-COPD patients. Mild hypercapnia was associated with increased hospital mortality for non-COPD patients but reduced hospital mortality for COPD patients. It would be reasonable to adjust PaCO2 targets in OHCA patients with COPD.
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Acute pancreatitis is the inflammation of the pancreas. It can range from mild forms to life-threatening severe cases. There is not yet a marker that can detect severe cases in the early period. Early diagnosis and treatment of this disease has critical importance for prognosis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the percentage of immature granulocyte (IG %) in patients with acute pancreatitis in order to predict the severity of the disease and in-hospital mortality. ⋯ A total of 218 patients (107 male) were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 56.9 ± 18.3 years. It was found that IG% levels were higher in patients with severe pancreatitis (p = .018). In the ROC analysis that was done to determine the severity of the disease, the cut-off value of IG% was found as >1.1. As such case, specificity was %38.89, sensitivity was 95.00%, positive predictive value (PPV) was 41.18% and negative predictive value (NPV) was found as 94.53% (Area Under Curve (AUC) = 0.698). In ROC analysis that was performed to determine in-hospital mortality, the cut-off value of IG level was found as >1.8, sensitivity was 50.00%, specificity was 97.12%, PPV was 45.45% and NPV was found as 97.58% (AUC = 0.708). CONCLUSıONS: This study shows that higher IG% levels may correlate with higher disease severity and in-hospital mortality in patients with acute pancreatitis.
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Although guidelines recommend specific benzodiazepine doses for the treatment of generalized convulsive status epilepticus (GCSE), underdosing appears to be common. The purpose of this investigation was to assess benzodiazepine dosing strategies for the initial management of GCSE in patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED). ⋯ According to guideline recommendations, there was consistent underdosing of benzodiazepines noted in both prehospital and ED settings. Early seizure cessation and the early receipt of an antiepileptic drug were found to be associated with multiple significant clinical outcomes. Future investigations should explore optimal dosing strategies for benzodiazepines as well as the impact of early antiepileptic drug administration.