The American journal of emergency medicine
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Case Reports
An unusual case of spontaneous nontraumatic pneumocephalus in the setting of remote craniofacial surgery.
Pneumocephalus is an uncommon pathology that typically follows head trauma, neurosurgery, or skull base tumors. Rarely, cases of spontaneous pneumocephalus can occur, most often in the setting of barotrauma. ⋯ Although rare, spontaneous pneumocephalus should be considered even in the absence of clinical neurologic findings or barotrauma, in patients with previous cranial surgery and unexplained headaches.
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Antibiotic stewardship programs have been a major focus in recent years to curtail antibiotic resistance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate antibiotic utilization for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI) in the Emergency Department (ED) setting. ⋯ We found a significant reduction in the utilization of antibiotics among adult ARTI visits to U.S. EDs from 2011 to 2017. This is an improvement from previous studies which showed no change, suggesting that antimicrobial stewardship efforts may be impacting overall antibiotic use and should continue to be practiced.
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Parkinsonism developed owing to viruses is one of the important causes of secondary parkinsonism. After the Spanish flu pandemic, the increase in the number of parkinsonian cases in the long term has drawn attention on the relationship between viruses and parkinsonism. ⋯ However, as we have reviewed in the literature, acute parkinsonism due to COVID-19 was not reported during this pandemic. Here, we present a case in which signs of acute parkinsonism developed on the 3rd day of the illness and neurological symptoms regressed with convalescent plasma treatment.