Missouri medicine
-
Acute care visits for sports-related concussion (SRC) are increasing dramatically in adolescents. This review summarizes current concepts in the evaluation and management of pediatric SRC by health care providers in the acute care setting.
-
Skin and sott tissue infections, including abscesses and cellulitides, are common problems seen by physicians. The treatment of soft tissue infections varies depending on the depth of infection or the presence of a fluid collection requiring incision and drainage. ⋯ It can prevent an unnecessary procedure or identify occult abscesses that may go on to develop a more severe infection requiring hospitalization. In this article,we discuss the utility of ultrasound as a diagnostic tool for skin and soft tissue infections, techniques to optimize scanning, and the potential drawbacks of its use.
-
Brain injury is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among cardiac arrest survivors. Management of these patients in the acute phase is challenging as is predicting their outcomes especially with the application of hypothermia. Therapeutic hypothermia has been proven beneficial but target temperature, timing, and duration that produce the best outcome are unclear and the subject of ongoing research. We review the recent advances in therapy and update the guidelines for management of these patients.
-
As physicians, we've all learned in detail about the science behind vaccinations, but I suspect few of us have been taught about the history of vaccinations. Sure, we all know that Dr. Jonas Salk developed the poliovirus vaccine, but I wasn't aware that he inoculated himself, his wife, and his three children with his then experimental vaccine. ⋯ I came across a fascinating website, historyofvaccines.org; this website is a project of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, touted as being the oldest professional medical organization in the United States. I credit the majority of the information in this article to the above website and the rest to the National Institutes of Health (nih.gov) website; I trust that the information is valid and true, based on the agencies behind these websites. Below are some interesting tidbits about vaccine preventable diseases that I found noteworthy to pass on to our readers.