Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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In recent years, the number of women entering the field of emergency medicine (EM) has increased. ⋯ Although female authorship remains a minority in EM publications, it has increased significantly in parallel with increases in female participation in EM.
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Withholding antibiotics in nontoxic children with acute otitis media (AOM) is now recommended to reduce bacterial resistance rates. Using the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), the authors describe the national trends for prescribing antibiotics in children with AOM presenting to emergency departments (EDs) in the United States over the past decade. The authors hypothesized that the rates of prescribing antibiotics would decline over time. ⋯ There was a slight increase in the percentage of children with AOM who were prescribed antibiotics in the ED between 1996 and 2005. There was also no change in the patterns of prescribing antibiotics.
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Acute atrial fibrillation and flutter are very common arrhythmias seen in emergency department (ED) patients, but there is no consensus for their optimal management. The objective of this study was to examine the efficacy and safety of intravenous (IV) procainamide for acute atrial fibrillation or flutter. ⋯ This study of acute atrial fibrillation or flutter patients treated in the ED with IV procainamide suggests that this treatment is safe and effective in this setting. Procainamide should be prospectively compared with other ED strategies.
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Cutaneous burns are dynamic injuries with a central zone of necrosis surrounded by a zone of ischemia. Conversion of this ischemic zone to full necrosis over the days following injury is due in part to highly reactive oxygen radicals. Curcumin is a component of the Oriental spice turmeric that has been shown to have antioxidant and antiapoptotic properties. The authors hypothesized that treatment of burns with curcumin would reduce the conversion of the ischemic zone to full necrosis. ⋯ Pretreatment of rats with oral curcumin followed by once-daily oral treatment for three days reduced the percentage of unburned skin interspaces that progressed to full necrosis.