Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The objective was to determine if focused transthoracic echocardiography (echo) can be used during resuscitation to predict the outcome of cardiac arrest. ⋯ Echocardiography performed during cardiac arrest that demonstrates an absence of cardiac activity harbors a significantly lower (but not zero) likelihood that a patient will experience ROSC. In selected patients with a higher likelihood of survival from cardiac arrest at presentation, based on established predictors of survival, echo should not be the sole basis for the decision to cease resuscitative efforts. Echo should continue to be used only as an adjunct to clinical assessment in predicting the outcome of resuscitation for cardiac arrest.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Adjunctive atropine versus metoclopramide: can we reduce ketamine-associated vomiting in young children? a prospective, randomized, open, controlled study.
Pediatric procedural sedation and analgesia (PPSA) with ketamine administration occurs commonly in the emergency department (ED). Although ketamine-associated vomiting (KAV) is a less serious complication of ketamine administration, it seems to be cumbersome and not uncommon. The authors evaluated the incidence of KAV and the prophylactic effect of adjunctive atropine and metoclopramide in children receiving ketamine sedation in the ED setting. ⋯ In this study, a high rate (28.4%) of KAV was observed, consistent with prior reports using the intramuscular (IM) route. However, the authors were unable to reduce KAV using adjunctive atropine or metoclopramide. Parents or caregivers should be given more detailed discharge instructions about vomiting and diet considering the relatively long time to resuming a normal diet after ketamine sedation and the fact that KAV often occurred after ED discharge.
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Diagnosing subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in emergency department (ED) patients is challenging. Potential diagnostic strategies include computed tomography (CT) only, CT followed by lumbar puncture (CT/LP), CT followed by magnetic resonance imaging and angiography (CT/MRA), and CT followed by CT angiography (CT/CTA). The objective was to determine the relative cost-effectiveness of diagnostic strategies for SAH. ⋯ In the base-case scenario, CT-only was preferable to the CT/CTA and CT/MRA strategies. When considering sensitivity analyses and the current medicolegal environment, there are no overwhelming differences between the cost-effectiveness of CT/LP and the alternative strategies to suggest that clinicians should abandon the standard CT/LP approach.
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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed in 2010, has important implications for emergency physicians (EPs). In addition to dramatically reducing the number of uninsured in the United States, this comprehensive health care reform legislation seeks to curb the escalating costs of health care delivery, optimize resource utilization, eliminate waste, and improve the quality of service delivered by the health care system. At the annual Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) meeting on November 5, 2011, an expert panel from public health, emergency medicine, and health services research was convened by the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine (AACEM) and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) to discuss possible future models for the emergency care system and academic emergency medicine in the era of the ACA.
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The Global Emergency Medicine Literature Review (GEMLR) conducts an annual search of published and unpublished articles relevant to global emergency medicine (EM) to identify, review, and disseminate the most important research in this field to a wide audience of academics and practitioners. ⋯ Compared to previous reviews, there was a significant increase in the number of articles that were devoted to emergency care in resource-limited settings, with fewer articles related to disaster and humanitarian response. The majority of articles that met our selection criteria were reviews that examined the efficacy of particular treatment regimens for diseases that are primarily seen in low- and middle-income countries.