J Emerg Med
-
Pit vipers, also known as crotalids, are a group of snakes including rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cottonmouths (water moccasins). Crotalids have a broad geographic distribution across the United States, and bites from these snakes can carry significant morbidity. Their envenomations are characterized by local tissue effects, hematologic effects, and systemic effects. Envenomations are generally treated with 1 of 2 antivenoms available in the United States. ⋯ Patients should be initially evaluated, stabilized, and assessed for local effects, hematologic effects, and systemic toxicity suggestive of envenomation. Antivenom should be given if toxic effects are present. Surgical intervention including debridement and fasciotomy should be avoided. Prophylactic antibiotics are not necessary.
-
Rapidly assessing an undifferentiated patient and developing a gestalt for "sick vs. not sick" is a core component of emergency medicine (EM). Developing this skill requires clinical experience and pattern recognition, which can be difficult to attain during a typical EM clerkship. ⋯ A teaching shift in triage can increase medical students' self-assessed rapid assessment skills for patients in the ED. Benefits to the teaching attending included the opportunity to perform direct observation, give real-time feedback, and identify real-time teaching moments.
-
Several studies reported that the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) has shown superiority over other screening tools in discriminating emergency department (ED) patients who are likely to progress to septic shock. ⋯ The discrimination power of the model for screening septic shock using NEWS, age, gender, and the six vital signs collected at ED triage outperformed the baseline NEWS model.
-
Atraumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a deadly condition that most commonly presents as acute, severe headache. Controversy exists concerning evaluation of SAH based on the time from onset of symptoms, specifically if the headache occurred > 6 h prior to patient presentation. ⋯ The probability of SAH above which emergency clinicians should perform a lumbar puncture is 1.0%. This threshold is essentially the same as the estimated probability of SAH in patients with a negative head CT obtained more than 6 h from symptom onset. Emergency physicians might reasonably decide to either perform or forego this procedure. Consequently, we contend that the decision whether to perform lumbar puncture in these instances is an excellent candidate for shared decision-making.
-
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a phenomenon that has emerged during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. There are, however, few reported cases of a similar disease in adults. ⋯ We describe a 25-year-old man who presented with prolonged fever and conjunctivitis and was found to have a post-COVID inflammatory syndrome. His symptoms improved with colchicine, steroids, and a truncated course of intravenous immunoglobulin. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Post-COVID inflammatory syndrome has the potential to lead to dangerous complications. In addition, the identification of occult COVID infections could have public health implications.