Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Although ultrasound guidance is occasionally used for abscess detection and aspiration by our radiology colleagues, this is still a very uncommon application in the emergency department (ED). A case is presented of a patient with a difficult-to-drain, recurrent breast abscess. ⋯ Drainage of the abscess was successfully completed in one attempt with real-time visualization and guidance of the needle. The consulting surgeon requested that ultrasound be available at the patient's follow-up visit to the ED.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
LET versus EMLA for pretreating lacerations: a randomized trial.
To compare the anesthetic efficacy of EMLA cream (eutectic mixture of local anesthetics) with that of LET solution (lidocaine, epinephrine, tetracaine) for pretreating lacerations prior to lidocaine injection. ⋯ Pretreatment of simple lacerations with LET or EMLA at the time of patient presentation results in similar amounts of pain of subsequent local infiltration of lidocaine
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Residential carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning represents a significant cause of unintentional morbidity and mortality in the United States. Screening by fire departments and utility companies is usually limited to instances in which there are symptoms of CO poisoning or there is activation of a home CO detector. ⋯ Emergency medical services personnel can perform routine CO screening and detect occult elevations in CO levels during 911 responses. Public knowledge of CO poisoning is limited and the use of home CO detectors is rare in this study population.
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Case Reports
Ethics seminars: Consent and refusal in an urban American emergency department: two case studies.
Patients in the emergency department frequently voice refusals of care or are unable or unwilling to consent to care. While general principles surrounding consent and refusal can be articulated in theory, it is often far more complicated in the real setting. Further, it is impossible to contemplate in advance every possible situation that might arise. ⋯ Emergency physicians face such complex decisions on a routine basis. Ethical reasoning skills are obviously a core competence in emergency medicine, even if easy answers are elusive. Two cases are presented that illustrate this complexity, and routes to resolution are discussed.