Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To present suggestions on planning for development of emergency medicine (EM) and out-of-hospital care in countries that are in an early phase of this process, and to provide basic background information for planners not already familiar with EM. ⋯ Some aspects of EM system development have applicability to most countries, but other aspects must be decided by planners based on country-specific factors. Because of the very recent initiation of many EM system development efforts in other countries, to the authors' knowledge there have not yet been extensive evaluative reports of the efficacy of these efforts. Further studies are needed on the relative effectiveness and cost-benefit of different EM development efforts.
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To provide a descriptive analysis of emergency department (ED) presentations and management of orthotopic liver transplant (OLT) patients. ⋯ Serious illnesses with nonspecific presentations were frequently encountered in this study population. These factors resulted in a majority of the patients' undergoing extensive diagnostic evaluations and being hospitalized.
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Resuscitation studies of hypertonic saline using controlled and uncontrolled hemorrhage models yield conflicting results with regard to efficacy. These disparate results reflect the use of models and resuscitation regimens that are not comparable between studies. This study evaluated the effects of comparable and clinically relevant resuscitation regimens of 7.5% sodium chloride/6% dextran 70 (HSD) and 0.9% sodium chloride (NS) in a near-fatal uncontrolled hemorrhage model. ⋯ In this model of severe uncontrolled hemorrhage, resuscitation with HSD or NS, administered in volumes that provided equivalent sodium loads at similar rates, had similar effects on mortality, hemodynamic parameters, and hemorrhage from the injury site.
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The number of potential uses of emergency department (ED) ultrasound is growing. This brief report describes its use in two ED patients who presented with acute ocular pathology. The diagnoses were quickly made with ED ultrasound, and subsequently confirmed with more traditional methods of ocular evaluation.