Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To determine the prevalence of cocaine use in a population of elder patients presenting to an inner-city academic emergency department (ED). ⋯ Elder patients may have a higher prevalence of cocaine use than previously estimated by national registries.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A randomized, controlled trial comparing long-term cosmetic outcomes of traumatic pediatric lacerations repaired with absorbable plain gut versus nonabsorbable nylon sutures.
To show that the use of absorbable sutures in pediatric traumatic lacerations affords good long-term cosmesis and no increase in complications (infection, dehiscence rates, and need for surgical scar revision) when compared with wounds sutured with nonabsorbable sutures. ⋯ The use of plain catgut absorbable sutures in the repair of traumatic lacerations in children appears to be an acceptable alternative to nonabsorbable sutures because the long-term cosmetic outcome seems to be at least as good. In this study, plain gut suture material seemed to provide slightly better cosmesis. In addition, no difference was found in the rate of dehiscence or infection between the groups.
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Clinical Trial
Noninvasive intracranial cerebral flow velocity evaluation in the emergency department by emergency physicians.
Transcranial Doppler (TCD) is an accepted modality for the evaluation of cerebral blood flow velocities. ⋯ Noninvasive blood flow velocity monitoring of the middle cerebral artery using TCD is feasible in the ED when performed at the bedside on intubated patients with traumatic brain injury and others during tracheal intubation and resuscitation.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A prospective, double-blind, randomized trial of midazolam versus haloperidol versus lorazepam in the chemical restraint of violent and severely agitated patients.
To determine if midazolam is superior to lorazepam or haloperidol in the management of violent and severely agitated patients in the emergency department. Superiority would be determined if midazolam resulted in a significantly shorter time to sedation and shorter time to arousal. ⋯ Midazolam has a significantly shorter time to onset of sedation and a more rapid time to arousal than lorazepam or haloperidol. The efficacies of all three drugs appear to be similar.
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To characterize emergency medicine (EM) residents' clinical experience during a pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) rotation. ⋯ Analysis of patient encounters during a PEM rotation showed deficiencies in critical care procedures, resuscitations, child abuse evaluations, and neonatal evaluations. Quantitative data of skills utilized during rotations can be used by residency programs to identify and correct deficiencies in their residents' PEM education.