Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
A Comparison of Cosmetic Outcomes of Lacerations on the Extremities and Trunk Using Absorbable Versus Nonabsorbable Sutures.
Use of absorbable sutures for simple laceration repair in the ED results in comparable 3 month cosmetic outcome to non-absorbable sutures.
pearl -
Comparative Study
Assessment of Dyspnea Early in Acute Heart Failure: Patient Characteristics and Response Differences Between Likert and Visual Analog Scales.
Dyspnea is the most common symptom in acute heart failure (AHF), yet how to best measure it has not been well defined. Prior studies demonstrate differences in dyspnea improvement across various measurement scales, yet these studies typically enroll patients well after the emergency department (ED) phase of management. ⋯ Predictors of early dyspnea improvement differ from scale to scale, with the exception of baseline dyspnea. Attempts to use one scale to capture the entirety of the dyspnea symptom may be insufficient.
-
Health outcomes among older emergency department (ED) patients may be influenced by physical, economic, and psychological problems not routinely identified during the ED visit. The objective of this study was to characterize such problems among older adults presenting to the ED. ⋯ Nonmedical problems are common among cognitively intact, independent living, non-critically ill older patients presenting to an ED in the southeast United States.