Pediatric emergency care
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Pediatric emergency care · Apr 2014
Factors Affecting Team Size and Task Performance in Pediatric Trauma Resuscitation.
Varying team size based on anticipated injury acuity is a common method for limiting personnel during trauma resuscitation. While missing personnel may delay treatment, large teams may worsen care through role confusion and interference. This study investigates factors associated with varying team size and task completion during trauma resuscitation. ⋯ Resuscitation task completion varies by team size, with a nonlinear association between number of team members and completed tasks. Management of team size during high-acuity activations, those without prior notification, and those in which the patient has a penetrating injury may help optimize performance.
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Agitation is a chief complaint that causes many children and adolescents to present to emergency medical attention. There are many reasons for acute agitation, including toxicologic, neurologic, infectious, metabolic, and functional disorders. At times it may be necessary to pharmacologically treat the agitation to prevent harm to the patient, caregivers, or hospital staff. ⋯ While treatment of agitation may be necessary to keep the patient as well as staff safe, as well as to facilitate medical evaluation in some cases, care must be taken to treat the patient with compassion, never using pharmacologic treatment for reasons of punishment or staff convenience. The focus is on the pharmacologic management of acute agitation of patients in the pediatric age group, in the context of a full evaluation for possible nonfunctional causes of agitation. Goals, risks, and benefits of medication use will be reviewed.
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Pediatric emergency care · Apr 2014
Review Case ReportsAcquired Long QT Syndrome: A Focus for the General Pediatrician.
Acquired long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a disorder of cardiac repolarization most often due to specific drugs, hypokalemia, or hypomagnesemia that may precipitate torsade de pointes and cause sudden cardiac death. Common presentations of the LQTS are palpitations, presyncope, syncope, cardiac arrest, and seizures. An abnormal 12-lead electrocardiogram obtained while the patient is at rest is the key to diagnosis. ⋯ The cornerstone of the management of acquired LQTS includes the identification and discontinuation of any precipitating drug and the correction of metabolic abnormalities, such as hypokalemia or hypomagnesemia. Most of the episodes of torsade de pointes are short-lived and terminate spontaneously. We propose a management protocol that could be useful for the daily practice in the emergency pediatric department to reduce the risk of acquired QT prolongation.
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Pediatric emergency care · Apr 2014
Multicenter StudyListeria and Enterococcal Infections in Neonates 28 Days of Age and Younger: Is Empiric Parenteral Ampicillin Still Indicated?
Empiric parenteral ampicillin has traditionally been used to treat listeria and enterococcal serious bacterial infections (SBI) in neonates 28 days of age or younger. Anecdotal experience suggests that these infections are rare. Existing data suggest an increasing resistance to ampicillin. Guidelines advocating the routine use of empiric ampicillin may need to be revisited. ⋯ Listeria is an uncommon cause of neonatal SBI in febrile neonates who presented to the ED. Empiric use of ampicillin may need to be reconsidered if national data confirm very low listeria and enterococcal prevalence and high ampicillin resistance patterns.
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Pediatric emergency care · Apr 2014
Review Case ReportsAcute disseminated encephalomyelitis following meningoencephalitis: case report and literature review.
Meningoencephalitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) are both neurological disease processes, but there have been few cases of meningoencephalitis progressing to ADEM in the pediatric population. A case of a 4-year-old girl with an initial diagnosis of meningoencephalitis is presented here, whose initial presentation was manifested by prolonged fever, gray matter signal abnormality on brain magnetic resonance imaging, cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis, and a markedly irritable mental status. ⋯ Her symptoms and imaging findings completely resolved with a course of methylprednisolone. Based on the literature and this current case, it is our recommendation to consider ADEM as a diagnosis if meningoencephalitis is not improving.