The American journal of emergency medicine
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Current literature contains an extensive number of analyses on the diagnostic value and utilization of the direct rectal exam in trauma patients. Presently, ATLS recommends the application of the digital rectal exam in trauma patients following a primary assessment of traumatic injuries. We aim to assess the validity and diagnostic value of the digital rectal exam in trauma populations. ⋯ The use of digital rectal exams in trauma patients illustrates limited to no validity and reliability in assessing pertinent injuries and does not influence the management of injuries. Trauma societies should consider creating guidelines and algorithms to clarify the use of digital rectal exams in specific situations and injury types.
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To describe first author gender differences and characteristics in 1) Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Annual Meeting abstracts and 2) resulting manuscript publications. ⋯ A minority of SAEM abstracts, and manuscript publications resulting from them, had female first authors. Abstracts with female first authors took longer to achieve manuscript publication, and almost a fifth of female first author abstracts resulted in male first author manuscript publication.
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This study sought to compare the impact of additional anticoagulation or thrombolytic therapy in patients with cardiac arrest without ST-segment-elevation on electrocardiography and not receiving percutaneous coronary intervention. Three studies (two randomized controlled studies and one observational study) were included, which demonstrated that use of anticoagulation or thrombolytic therapy was associated with higher risk of bleeding, without improvements in time to return of spontaneous circulation or in-hospital mortality.