Journal of community hospital internal medicine perspectives
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J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect · Jan 2015
Critical gastrointestinal bleed due to secondary aortoenteric fistula.
Secondary aortoenteric fistula (SAEF) is a rare yet lethal cause of gastrointestinal bleeding and occurs as a complication of an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Clinical presentation may vary from herald bleeding to overt sepsis and requires high index of suspicion and clinical judgment to establish diagnosis. Initial diagnostic tests may include computerized tomography scan and esophagogastroduodenoscopy. ⋯ A combination of MeSH terms and Boolean operators were used to device search strategy. In addition, a bibliography of clinically relevant articles was searched to find additional articles (Appendix A). The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive update on the diagnosis, management, and prognosis of SAEF.
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J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect · Jan 2015
Case ReportsTaking it to the next level: lumbar radiculopathy from thoracic nerve schwannoma.
Compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve and its branches, the common fibular and tibial nerves, causes sciatica which is a common syndrome characterized most often by radiating pain from the lower back down the legs and also manifesting as sensory and motor deficits. Sciatica is a common presentation of lumbosacral disc prolapse and degenerative disease of the lumbar spine in ambulatory settings. Schwannomas rarely cause sciatica; hence, it is seldom considered in evaluation of a patient with radiculopathy. ⋯ Thoracolumbar spine MRI revealed the schwannoma in the thoracic region. He recovered neurologic function after tumor excision. This case highlights the diagnostic challenge that may arise in evaluating a patient with lumbar radiculopathy, negative lumbosacral spine imaging, and failure of conservative therapy.
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J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect · Jan 2015
Modified Early Warning System improves patient safety and clinical outcomes in an academic community hospital.
Severe adverse events such as cardiac arrest and death are often heralded by abnormal vital signs hours before the event. This necessitates an organized track and trigger approach of early recognition and response to subtle changes in a patient's condition. The Modified Early Warning System (MEWS) is one of such systems that use temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, and level of consciousness with each progressive higher score triggering an action. Root cause analysis for mortalities in our institute has led to the implementation of MEWS in an effort to improve patient outcomes. Here we discuss our experience and the impact of MEWS implementation on patient care at our community academic hospital. ⋯ Implementation of MEWS in our institute has led to higher rapid response system utilization but lower cardiopulmonary arrest events; this is associated with a lower mortality rate, and improved patient safety and clinical outcomes. We recommend the widespread use of MEWS to improve patient outcomes.
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J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect · Jan 2015
A new approach to the prevention and treatment of delirium in elderly patients in the intensive care unit.
The pronounced prevalence of delirium in geriatric patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and its increased morbidity and mortality is a well-established phenomenon. The purpose of this review is to explore the potential use of dexmedetomidine in preventing or managing ICU delirium in older patients. Articles used were identified and selected through multiple search engines, including Google Scholar, PubMed, and MEDLINE. ⋯ Dexmedetomidine has also been shown to be effective in limiting risk factors associated with ICU delirium such as length and depth of sedation. As opposed to benzodiazepines or opiates, dexmedetomidine provides effective analgesia, sympatholysis, and anxiolysis without causing respiratory depression and allows a patient to more effectively interact with practitioners. The review of these nine articles indicates that these favorable attributes and overall decreased duration and incidence of delirium make dexmedetomidine a viable option in preventing or reducing ICU delirium in high-risk geriatric patients and as a palliative adjunct to help control symptoms and stressors.
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J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect · Jan 2015
A widened pulse pressure: a potential valuable prognostic indicator of mortality in patients with sepsis.
Sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and the most common cause of death among critically ill patients in non-coronary intensive care units. Previous studies have showed pulse pressure (PP) to be a predictor of fluid responsiveness in patients with sepsis. Additionally, previous studies have correlated PP to cardiovascular risk factors and increase in mortality in end-stage renal disease patients. ⋯ Based on our findings, we suggest that PP could be a valuable clinical tool in the early assessment of patients admitted with sepsis and could be used as a prognostic factor to assess and implement management therapy for the patients with sepsis.