Pediatric emergency care
-
A serious complication of myasthenia gravis is respiratory failure. This may be secondary to an exacerbation of myasthenia (myasthenia crisis) or to treatment with excess doses of a cholinesterase inhibitor (cholinergic crisis). Managing respiratory failure and differentiating a myasthenia from a cholinergic crisis is reviewed. Due to the unpredictable development of respiratory failure, hospitalization is recommended for most patients with exacerbations or complications of myasthenia gravis.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Aug 2005
Comparative StudyThe utility of bedside ultrasound and patient perception in detecting soft tissue foreign bodies in children.
The purpose of the study was to determine if bedside ultrasound (US) and perception of wound foreign bodies (FBs) are useful screening tools for detecting wound FBs in children. ⋯ Bedside US is comparable to the performance of radiography interpreted by an attending pediatric radiologist. Bedside US alone or combined with patient perception may be an adequate initial screening tool for detecting wound FBs.
-
The topic of gender and medical care is receiving increased attention but has not been studied in children. We noticed that several children undergoing laceration repair in emergency department requested to be sutured by a female physician. This study attempted to find gender preferences of children and parents for the physician in the emergency department. ⋯ Most children (79%) preferred a female physician for their sutures, whereas parents overall (60%) appeared to prefer a male physician. The children did not appear to care if the physician was the "best." Surprisingly, many parents also chose physician gender rather than physician experience. One hundred percent of the parents who chose the most experienced physician were willing to wait longer to be seen as compared with 29% who preferred a physician of a particular gender.