Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To adapt screening and brief intervention for alcohol problems (SBI) to a high-volume emergency department (ED) setting and evaluate its acceptability to patients. ⋯ High rates of consent and acceptance of counseling for alcohol problems by patients across a wide range of problem severity indicate that this protocol was acceptable to at-risk patients in a public-hospital ED. Improvements in alcohol-related outcome measures at follow-up were strong enough to warrant controlled studies of intervention efficacy.
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Heated debate persists regarding the role of resident moonlighting in emergency medicine (EM). The attitudes of EM residency applicants have not been assessed. The objectives of this study were to assess: 1) the level of educational debt among EM residency applicants, 2) their perception of increased risk potential to patients from unsupervised EM resident practice, and 3) their opposition to laws restricting moonlighting. The authors then report the relationship between the degree of indebtedness and these stated positions. ⋯ Emergency medicine residency applicant debt is large. The EM applicants' opposition to laws that would restrict moonlighting was mixed. This was inconsistent with the majority acknowledging an increased risk potential to patients. Nearly all EM applicants would still select EM as a career, even if moonlighting were to be banned.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Comparison of intravenous midazolam with pentobarbital for sedation for head computed tomography imaging.
To compare the efficacy of intravenous (IV) midazolam with that of IV pentobarbital when used for sedation for head computed tomography (CT) imaging in emergency department (ED) pediatric patients. ⋯ Intravenous pentobarbital is more effective than IV midazolam for sedation of children requiring CT imaging.
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Comparative Study
A comparison of succinylcholine and rocuronium for rapid-sequence intubation of emergency department patients.
To compare rocuronium and succinylcholine for rapid-sequence intubation (RSI) in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Both succinylcholine and rocuronium produced fast and reliable paralysis for RSI. Although succinylcholine had a faster onset and provided more relaxation, the difference had no clinical significance. Approximately a fourth of ED RSI patients qualified for use of rocuronium using these high-risk criteria.