Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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To examine the effectiveness of a five-level Paediatric Triage and Acuity System (Ped-TTAS) by comparing the reliability of patient prioritisation and resource utilisation with the four-level Paediatric Taiwan Triage System (Ped-TTS) among non-trauma paediatric patients in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ The five-level Ped-TTAS is better able to discriminate paediatric patients by triage acuity in the ED and is also more precise in predicting resource utilisation. The introduction of a more accurate acuity and triage system for use in paediatric emergency care should provide greater patient safety and more timely utilisation of appropriate ED resources.
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A short-cut review was carried out to determine whether intranasal lorazepam was as effective as intravenous lorazepam in the control of seizures in children. Eighteen papers were found using the reported search, of which one was directly relevant and another compared intranasal lorazepam with intramuscular paraldehyde. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses are shown in table 1. It is concluded that intranasal lorazepam appears to be a safe and effective treatment for this condition.
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Although sodium disturbances are common in hospitalised patients, no study has specifically investigated the epidemiology of hyponatraemia in patients with crush syndrome. ⋯ Hyponatraemia was common in the patients with crush syndrome during the Wenchuan earthquake and associated with poor prognosis. Water, commercial drinks and hypotonic intravenous fluids should be supplied carefully to patients with crush syndrome.
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Poisoning among children and youths in the northeastern part of Poland accounted for 25% of the total number of patients admitted to the Hospital Emergency Department of the Paediatric University Hospital of Białystok. We hypothesise that the epidemiology of poisoned paediatric patients admitted is related to increase in 'designer drugs' (mainly amphetamine- and ecstasy-like psychostimulants, hallucinogens and synthetic cannabinoids ('spice') intake, which became popular 5 years ago in our country. ⋯ Out of 2176 hospitalised children, 489 were admitted because of poisoning. Out of these, 244 (49.9%) were hospitalised due to intoxication by alcohol. Only eight children used designer drugs. The mean age of all patients in our group was 12.86±5.04 years, of which 52.4% were male. Poisoning was intentional in 75.5%, and accidental in 24.5% of cases. Appearance of 'designer drugs' had no significant impact on the number and epidemiology of poisonings in our group.
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Emergency Department overcrowding with admitted inpatients is a common international occurrence. We undertook a retrospective review to compare patient admission rates from patients presenting to our Emergency Department with the level of overcrowding with admitted inpatients on that particular day in the Emergency Department. Over the 2-year study period there was no change in the rate or absolute number of admissions per day compared with the level of inpatient overcrowding.