Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
To assess the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival advantage after providing police with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in rural and suburban Indiana. ⋯ Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival in suburban and rural Indiana did not improve after police were equipped with AEDs, likely related to poor police response.
-
Comparative Study
Emergency department right upper quadrant ultrasound is associated with a reduced time to diagnosis and treatment of ruptured ectopic pregnancies.
To determine whether the time to diagnosis and treatment of patients with ruptured ectopic pregnancy is significantly less for patients who had emergency department (ED) right upper quadrant (RUQ) ultrasound (US) compared with those who had US in the radiology department. ⋯ Patients with ruptured ectopic pregnancy, who were selected to have RUQ US performed in the ED by emergency physicians, had an average decrease in time to diagnosis of two and a quarter hours, and an average decrease in time to treatment of three and a half hours, compared with those having a formal pelvic US in the radiology department. Further prospective investigation is needed to determine whether ED RUQ US can safely expedite care of patients with suspected ectopic pregnancy.
-
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.
-
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