Pediatric emergency care
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Pediatric emergency care · Jan 2022
How Age Matters in the Assessment of Vertigo in the Pediatric Emergency Department: A 10-Year Age-Stratified Etiology Survey.
Vertigo is a relatively frequent cause for referral to the pediatric emergency department, and it is usually caused by benign or self-limiting etiology. However, it could be difficult to evaluate especially in the younger child and could also conceal serious illness as encephalitis or cerebellitis. ⋯ We found that age is the most important variable to assess the possibility of a central nervous system disease as etiology cause of vertigo with a significant difference of incidence between the younger group (younger than 6 years, 23%) and older groups (3% and 1%; P < 0.001). This finding should reinforce the index of suspicion for a central nervous system illness as cause of vertigo in the preschool children with an accurate workup including evaluation by a neurologist or an otorhinolaryngologist and instrumental investigations as needed.
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Pediatric emergency care · Jan 2022
Design and Test of a Graphic Medication Dosage Calculator in Paramedic Practice With Children.
Children are more vulnerable to medication errors during prehospital care because of paramedic staff having less experience with pediatric patients. One of the possible solutions to this problem is the use of technologies as cognitive aids to medication dosage calculation. ⋯ The results show that the graphic calculator was usable, more effective, efficient, and preferred compared with the current dosage calculation method. Technologies such as the graphic calculator designed and tested in this study can help not only with the rare cases, such as pediatrics, but might also mitigate skill decay.
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Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the leading cause of death from trauma in children less than 2 years of age. A delay in presentation for care has been reported as a risk factor for abuse; however, there has been limited research on this topic. We compare children diagnosed with AHT to children diagnosed with accidental head trauma to determine if there is a delay in presentation. ⋯ Children who had AHT were more likely to have a delayed presentation for care as compared with children whose head trauma was accidental. A delay in care should prompt clinicians to strongly consider a workup for abusive injury.
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Pediatric emergency care · Jan 2022
Multicenter StudyNeonatal Fever in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Odds of a Serious Bacterial Infection.
A sepsis workup is recommended in young infants 56 days or younger with fever to rule out a serious bacterial infection (SBI). Given the reduction in non-severe acute respiratory syndrome - coronavirus 2 viral infections observed in multiple studies during the coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we sought to determine if the reduction in viral infections led to a change in the incidence of SBI in this vulnerable patient population. ⋯ The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the incidence of SBIs in febrile infants 56 days or younger, likely a result of reduction in non-severe acute respiratory syndrome - coronavirus 2 viral infections. Greater vigilance is thus warranted in the evaluation of febrile infants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Pediatric emergency care · Jan 2022
Use of Cardiac Point-of-Care Ultrasound in the Pediatric Emergency Department.
We sought to describe the test characteristics of cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) performed by pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physicians after structured cardiac POCUS training. ⋯ Cardiac POCUS is both sensitive and specific for identifying pericardial effusion and left ventricular systolic dysfunction when performed by PEM attendings with focused training.