Pediatric emergency care
-
Human bites are common during childhood and usually result from fights or aggressive play with another child. Bites may present as indentation marks, scratches, abrasions, contusions, or lacerations. ⋯ Cultures of an infected bite wound yield an average of five microorganisms. This article reviews the current recommendations on the management of human bite wounds in children.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Oct 1992
Follow-up of patients with occult bacteremia in pediatric emergency departments.
Blood cultures are frequently obtained in pediatric emergency departments (EDs) from febrile young children at risk for bacteremia and subsequent development of serious bacterial infections. This study of 105 children with occult bacteremia treated in two large urban pediatric EDs describes the follow-up of these patients and the impact that positive blood culture results have on the detection of serious illness. Seventy-seven percent of patients had a follow-up visit in the ED, 8% had follow-up by telephone alone, and 15% were not contacted. ⋯ Ten children (9.6%), five of whom had been notified of the positive blood culture, returned with serious illnesses. Patients whose diagnosis of serious illness was facilitated by blood culture results had shorter delay in identifying cultures as positive than did patients notified of positive results who did not develop serious illness (16.2 vs 31.6 hours; P < 0.05). The delay in follow-up of children with occult bacteremia limits the usefulness of blood cultures in the early detection of serious illness.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
-
Pediatric emergency care · Oct 1992
Case ReportsEvaluation of the patient with neck complaints following tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy.
The emergency physician should be cognizant of the potential postoperative complications of tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy. Two unusual cases are presented to illustrate the differential diagnosis of the postoperative complaint of neck stiffness.