Articles: emergency-medicine.
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Trauma scores in emergency medicine quantitatively characterise the severity of trauma victims' injuries and physiologic derangements. They are used to detect and assess patients and have applications in guiding patient care and early therapeutic decisions. In the pre-clinical setting, an effective trauma index meets the following criteria: It is highly reliable with regard to identifying high- and low-risk patients. ⋯ Mortality and patient outcome do not strictly correlate with injury severity scoring. In addition, intubated or paralysed patients were excluded from outcome studies since the scoring systems lacked options for evaluation of pathophysiological conditions after therapeutic interventions. Thus, therapeutic efficacy could hardly be assessed, and subsequent scoring during time periods was impossible.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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A retrospective review of prospectively gathered data from 249 trauma patients was undertaken to study the association of lower urinary tract disruptions with pelvic fractures and to confirm guidelines for the initial investigation and management of such patients in the emergency room. Of 249 patients with pelvic fractures, 124 (50%) had haematuria and 17 (7%) had lower urinary tract disruptions (7 urethral ruptures, 9 bladder ruptures and 1 patient with both bladder and urethral ruptures). ⋯ Retrograde urethrography followed by cystography is indicated in all cases of pelvic fractures with blood at the urethral meatus, macroscopic haematuria or associated signs such as inability to void and perineal haematoma. Urinary diversion alone was used in partial urethral ruptures while surgical exploration and repair were performed in complete urethral ruptures and in most cases of bladder ruptures.
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Pediatric emergency care · Jun 1994
Risk management in pediatric emergency medicine: a curriculum for fellowship training.
Risk management has become an everyday aspect of medicine. Pediatric emergency medicine training programs have a unique opportunity to educate fellows in the area of risk management, along with other areas of medical administration. This curriculum should provide a guideline for a logical and workable education in the basics of risk management.
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Occupational exposure to HIV is becoming a daily hazard in many emergency departments. Emergency physicians who are protected by disability insurance policies are likely to believe that if they are unable to continue working because of HIV-positive status, their disability policies will provide them with a source of income. Unfortunately, analysis of case law regarding claims under disability policies shows that the law is unlikely to consider an asymptomatic, HIV-positive physician disabled for purposes of payments under disability policies. Therefore, it is necessary for emergency physicians to make sure this issue is resolved before buying and relying on a disability policy so that an anticipated safety net will be operative over the full range of hazards that emergency physicians face.