The western journal of emergency medicine
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Estimation of laceration length by emergency department personnel.
Documentation and billing for laceration repair involves a description of wound length. We designed this study to test the hypothesis that emergency department (ED) personnel can accurately estimate wound lengths without the aid of a measuring device. ⋯ ED personnel are often unable to accurately estimate wound length in either cm or inches and tend to overestimate laceration lengths when based solely on visual inspection.
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Both the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) require core faculty to engage in scholarly work, including publication in peer-reviewed journals. With the ACGME/AOA merger, we sought to evaluate the frequency of publication in high-impact peer-reviewed EM journals from authors affiliated with osteopathic emergency medicine (EM) programs. ⋯ Authors from osteopathic EM programs are under-represented in the top EM journals. With the pending ACGME/AOA merger, there is a significant opportunity for improvement in the rate of publication of osteopathic EM programs in top tier EM journals.
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A 33 year-old female presented to the emergency department (ED) with of two weeks of diffuse abdominal pain, right flank pain, and a slowly enlarging right inguinal mass. She had no associated fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. ⋯ On exam, there was no abdominal tenderness, and a 2 cm × 2 cm non-reducible, mildly tender right inguinal mass was noted. A bedside ultrasound (Figures 1 and 2) was performed in the ED.
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Propofol is frequently used in the emergency department to provide procedural sedation for patients undergoing various procedures and is considered to be safe when administered by trained personnel. Pulmonary edema after administration of propofol has rarely been reported. ⋯ The patient was treated successfully with supportive care. This report emphasizes the importance of this potentially fatal propofol-associated complication and discusses possible underlying mechanisms and related literature.