Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Routine packing of simple cutaneous abscesses is painful and probably unnecessary.
The objective was to determine whether the routine packing of simple cutaneous abscesses after incision and drainage (I&D) confers any benefit over I&D alone. ⋯ In this pilot study, not packing simple cutaneous abscesses did not result in any increased morbidity, and patients reported less pain and used fewer pain medications than packed patients.
-
Detection of undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetic states in high-risk emergency department patients.
Diabetes is often not diagnosed until complications appear, and one-third of those with diabetes may be undiagnosed. Prediabetes and diabetes are conditions in which early detection would be appropriate, because the duration of hyperglycemia is a predictor of adverse outcomes, and there are effective interventions to prevent disease progression and to reduce complications. ⋯ A substantial fraction of this urban ED study population was at risk for undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes, and among the at-risk patients referred for follow-up, the majority demonstrated diabetes or prediabetes. Notably, all patients with two risk factors and a random serum glucose > 155 mg/dL were later diagnosed with prediabetes or diabetes. Consideration should be given to referring ED patients with risk factors and a random glucose > 155 mg/dL for follow-up testing.
-
Coagulopathy is common after severe trauma and occurs very early after the initial insult. Some investigators have suggested early and aggressive treatment of the trauma-induced coagulopathy by transfusion of fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) and packed red blood cells (PRBC) in a 1:1 ratio. This evidence-based emergency medicine (EBM) review evaluates the evidence regarding the impact of 1:1 ratio of FFP:PRBC transfusion on survival of emergency department (ED) patients with severe trauma. ⋯ Three retrospective registry reviews with suboptimal methodologies and one prospective cohort study provide inadequate evidence to support or refute the use of a high FFP:PRBC ratio in patients with severe trauma.
-
Patients of all ages use emergency departments (EDs) for primary care. Several studies have evaluated patient and system characteristics that influence pediatric ED use. However, the issue of proximity as a predictor of ED use has not been well studied. The authors sought to determine whether ED use by pediatric Medicaid enrollees was associated with the distance to their primary care providers (PCPs), distance to the nearest ED, and distance to the nearest children's hospital. ⋯ Geographical variables play a significant role in ED utilization in children, confirming the importance of system-level determinants of ED use and creating the opportunity for interventions to reduce geographical barriers to primary care.
-
This study aimed to develop and validate a new method for measuring injury severity, the excess mortality ratio-adjusted Injury Severity Score (EMR-ISS), using the International Classification of Diseases 10th Edition (ICD-10). ⋯ The EMR-ISS showed better calibration and discrimination power for prediction of death than the ICISS in most injury groups. The EMR-ISS appears to be a feasible tool for passive injury surveillance of large data sets, such as insurance data sets or community injury registries containing diagnosis codes. Additional further studies for external validation on prospectively collected data sets should be considered.