Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Multicenter Study
A Simple Clinical Decision Rule To Rule Out Appendicitis In Patients With Nondiagnostic Ultrasound Results.
The objective was to identify a set of clinical features that can rule out appendicitis in patients with suspected acute appendicitis and nondiagnostic ultrasound (US) results, allowing safe discharge and next-day reevaluation without initial computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). ⋯ This newly developed CDR significantly reduces the probability of appendicitis in a large subgroup of patients with negative or inconclusive US results. These patients can be safely discharged for outpatient reevaluation without further initial imaging if proper follow-up is available. This could assist in lowering the number of ED imaging investigations in patients with suspected appendicitis.
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Patients with respiratory distress often seek emergency medical care and are transported by emergency medical services (EMS). EMS encounters with patients in respiratory distress have not been well described. The study objective was to characterize the epidemiology of prehospital respiratory distress and subsequent patient outcomes. ⋯ In a population-based cohort, EMS personnel commonly encounter prehospital respiratory distress among medical patients, many of whom require hospital admission to the intensive care unit. These data may help to inform targeted therapy or more efficient triage and transport decisions.