European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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The majority of uncomplicated toddler fractures of the tibia (toddler's fractures) do not need an orthopaedic surgeon's intervention or follow-up. However, inexperienced emergency room physicians, general practitioners and orthopaedic trainees and surgeons understandably defer to a cautious approach of referral and subsequent frequent clinical and radiographic follow-up. An evidence-based pathway can help prevent this overtreatment, reduce unnecessary radiation exposure and decrease the financial burden on families and the healthcare system. ⋯ Toddler's fractures do not require routine orthopaedic surgeon assessment, intervention or follow-up. If diagnosed and managed correctly at initial presentation, patients with toddler's fractures may be discharged safely without the need for further clinician contact. We developed a toddler's fracture clinical care pathway to reduce unnecessary orthopaedic surgeon referral and clinical and radiographic follow-up, thereby decreasing radiation exposure and costs to families and the healthcare system without risking patient outcomes.
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Management of chest pain in the French emergency healthcare system: the prospective observational EPIDOULTHO study.
The aim of this paper was to describe the epidemiology, and diagnostic and therapeutic strategies that emergency physicians use to manage patients presenting with chest pain at all three levels of the French emergency medical system - that is, dispatch centres (SAMUs: the medical emergency system), which operate the mobile intensive care units (MICUs), and hospitals' emergency departments (EDs), with a focus on acute coronary syndrome (ACS). ⋯ Management of chest pain at the three levels of the French medical emergency system is mainly oriented towards ruling out ACS. The strategy of diagnostic management is based on minimizing missed diagnoses of ACS.
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Multicenter Study
Applying the Ottawa subarachnoid haemorrhage rule on a cohort of emergency department patients with headache.
The Ottawa subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) rule suggests that alert patients older than 15 years with a severe nontraumatic headache reaching maximum intensity within 1 h and absence of high-risk variables effectively have a SAH ruled out. We aimed to determine the proportion of emergency department (ED) patients with any headache fulfilling the entry criteria for the Ottawa SAH rule. ⋯ In this descriptive observational study, the majority of ED patients presenting with a headache did not fulfil the entry criteria for the Ottawa SAH rule. Less than 5% of the patients in this cohort could have SAH excluded on the basis of the rule. More definitive studies are needed to determine an accepted benchmark for the proportion of patients receiving further work-up (computed tomographic brain) after fulfilling the entry criteria for the Ottawa SAH rule.