Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Ketamine Administration for Acute Painful Sickle Cell Crisis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
The objective was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of single-dose ketamine infusion in adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) who presented with acute sickle vasoocclusive crisis (VOC). ⋯ Early use of ketamine in adults with VOC resulted in a meaningful reduction in pain scores over a 2-h period and reduced the cumulative morphine dose in the ED with no significant drug-related side effects in the ketamine-treated group.
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This study investigated trends in computed tomography (CT) utilization across different triage categories of injury presentations to tertiary emergency departments (EDs) and associations with diagnostic yield measured by injury severity, hospitalization and length of stay (LOS), and mortality. ⋯ The reduction in diagnostic yield in terms of injury severity and hospitalization found in our study might indicate a shift toward overtesting using CT in ED for injury or a higher use of CT to assist in the management of injuries. This helps health care policymakers consider whether the current increase in CT use meets the desired levels of quality and efficient care.