BMC emergency medicine
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BMC emergency medicine · Jul 2016
Carotid artery dissection and motor vehicle trauma: patient demographics, associated injuries and impact of treatment on cost and length of stay.
Blunt carotid arterial injury (BCI) is a rare injury associated with motor vehicle collision (MVC). There are few population based analyses evaluating carotid injury associated with blunt trauma and their associated injuries as well as outcomes. ⋯ BCI is a rare injury associated with MVC, most frequently reported in younger patients. Frequently associated injuries were long bone fractures, stroke and intracranial hemorrhage, thoracic injuries, and pelvic fractures which are likely associated with the force/mechanism of injury. The majority of patients were treated without intervention, but when CAS was utilized, it did not impact mortality and trended toward increased costs.
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BMC emergency medicine · May 2016
Personal and professional challenges confronted by hospital staff following hurricane sandy: a qualitative assessment of management perspectives.
Adequate hospital staffing during and after a disaster is critical to meet increased health care demands and to ensure continuity of care and patient safety. However, when a disaster occurs, staff may become both victim and responder, decreasing their ability and willingness to report for work. This qualitative study assessed the personal and professional challenges that affected staff decisions to report to work following a natural disaster and examined the role of management in addressing staff needs and concerns. ⋯ During and after a disaster event, hospital staff is often confronted with challenges that affect decisions to report for work and perform effectively under potentially harsh conditions. This study examined barriers and facilitators that hospital staff encountered following a major natural disaster from the management perspective. Insights gained from this study can be used to inform future disaster planning and preparedness efforts, and help ensure that there is adequate staffing to mount an effective response when a disaster occurs, and to recover from its aftermath.
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BMC emergency medicine · Apr 2016
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyHigher diagnostic accuracy and cost-effectiveness using procalcitonin in the treatment of emergency medicine patients with fever (The HiTEMP study): a multicenter randomized study.
Fever is a common symptom in the emergency department(ED). Fever can be caused by bacterial infections, which are treated with antibiotics. Often, bacterial infections cannot be ruled out in the ED using standard diagnostics, and empiric antibiotic treatment is started. Procalcitonin(PCT) is a biomarker for bacterial infections, but its role in an undifferentiated ED population remains unclear. We hypothesize that PCT-guided therapy may reduce antibiotics prescription in undifferentiated febrile ED patients. The primary objectives of this study are to determine a) the efficacy, b) the safety of PCT-guided therapy, and c) the accuracy of the biomarker PCT for bacterial infections. The secondary objective is to study the cost-effectiveness of PCT-guided therapy. ⋯ NTR4949.
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BMC emergency medicine · Feb 2016
Multicenter Study Observational StudyValidation of a novel prediction model for early mortality in adult trauma patients in three public university hospitals in urban India.
Trauma is one of the top threats to population health globally. Several prediction models have been developed to supplement clinical judgment in trauma care. Whereas most models have been developed in high-income countries the majority of trauma deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Almost 20 % of all global trauma deaths occur in India alone. The aim of this study was to validate a basic clinical prediction model for use in urban Indian university hospitals, and to compare it with existing models for use in early trauma care. ⋯ A basic clinical prediction model with only two parameters may prove to be a feasible alternative to more complex models in contexts such as the Indian public university hospitals studied here. We present a colour-coded chart to further simplify the decision making in early trauma care.
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BMC emergency medicine · Feb 2016
Use of diagnosis codes for detection of clinically significant opioid poisoning in the emergency department: A retrospective analysis of a surveillance case definition.
Although fatal opioid poisonings tripled from 1999 to 2008, data describing nonfatal poisonings are rare. Public health authorities are in need of tools to track opioid poisonings in near real time. ⋯ This surveillance mechanism identifies many clinically significant opioid overdoses with a high positive predictive value. With further validation, it may help target control measures such as prescriber education and pharmacy monitoring.