Southern medical journal
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Southern medical journal · Aug 1996
Case ReportsSting of the puss caterpillar: an unusual cause of acute abdominal pain.
We report the case of a 41-year-old man with abdominal pain after envenomization by a puss caterpillar. The patient's medical history and physical examination revealed classic symptoms, leading to the correct diagnosis and appropriate therapy with intravenous calcium gluconate. Although severe, local reactions to puss caterpillar envenomization have been previously described, to our knowledge this is the first report of a patient with severe, acute abdominal pain caused by a puss caterpillar's sting.
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Southern medical journal · Aug 1996
Patient understanding of emergency department discharge instructions.
Patients were interviewed immediately after discharge outside the emergency department to determine whether they could read their discharge instructions and recall their diagnosis and treatment plan. The association between frequency of correct responses and various characteristics of the patients was assessed. Of the patients completing the interview, 72% could read the discharge instructions. ⋯ Overall, 37% of patients answered all questions correctly and 8% answered all questions incorrectly. No association was found between frequency of correct responses and variables examined. Miscommunication of discharge information occurs frequently; illiteracy does not completely account for the observed low rates of recall.