Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Acute scrotal pain is not a rare emergency department (ED) complaint. Traditional reliance on medical history and physical examination can be precarious as signs and symptoms can overlap in various etiologies of acute scrotal pain. ⋯ This study suggests that EPs using bedside ultrasonography are able to accurately diagnose patients presenting with acute scrotal pain. In addition, they appear able to differentiate between surgical emergencies, such as testicular torsion, and other etiologies.
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Distracting painful injuries (DPIs) may mask symptoms of spinal injury in blunt trauma victims and form an important element in a decision instrument used to identify individuals who require cervical spine radiography. ⋯ A significant number of blunt trauma patients are believed by clinicians to have DPIs that can possibly mask the presence of cervical spinal injury. Fractures and trauma to soft tissues are the most common types of DPI.
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As a method to control patient flow to overburdened hospitals, effective emergency medical services (EMS) systems provide policies for ambulance diversion. The Maryland state EMS system supports two types of alert for general hospital use: red alert, aimed at limiting the delivery of patients who may require intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and yellow alert, aimed at preventing further overload of already overtaxed emergency departments (EDs). ⋯ The ED diversion policy has some limited effect in preventing further patient volume in urban and suburban areas, but has virtually no impact in rural areas. However, an ICU diversion policy diverts patients of all acuities uniformly and inordinately diverts patients not likely to require ICU admissions while having only minimal impact on patients who do require ICU resources. The impact of red alert is uniform in all geographic areas. The impact and efficacy of ambulance diversion policies should be evaluated to ensure they are having the intended effect. While perhaps initially effective, the impact of alert policies may change over time.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The efficacy of esmolol versus lidocaine to attenuate the hemodynamic response to intubation in isolated head trauma patients.
To assess the effect of esmolol vs lidocaine to attenuate the detrimental rise in heart rate and blood pressure during intubation of patients with isolated head trauma. ⋯ Esmolol and lidocaine have similar efficacies to attenuate moderate hemodynamic response to intubation of patients with isolated head trauma.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The effect of lower-extremity position on cerebrospinal fluid pressures.
To determine the effects of lower-extremity positioning on cerebrospinal fluid opening pressure (CSFp). The authors believed that during lumbar puncture (LP), CSFp does not meaningfully decrease when the lower extremities are extended from flexion, as is often suggested. ⋯ Changing lower-extremity position did not meaningfully change mean CSFp. These data do not support the common suggestion that extending the lower extremities during LP meaningfully decreases CSF opening pressures.