Volume 15, Issue 4, July 2014
Yalcin Golcuk, MD et al.
A 83-year-old man with a history of urinary stone disease presented to the emergency department with abdominal and right-sided flank pain. Examination demonstrated distended abdomen and right costovertebral angle tenderness.
Volume 15, Issue 4, July 2014
Caleb P. Canders, MD et al.
A 63-year-old man presented with abdominal distension and shortness of breath for two days. He reported flatus and denied chest pain, anorexia, vomiting, or abdominal pain.
Volume 15, Issue 4, July 2014
Landon A. Jones, MD et al.
A 37 year-old male presented after an altercation in which he was dragged by a vehicle. The patient was intoxicated and asking repetitive questions. He demonstrated significant facial trauma—including frank bloody discharge from both ears and dental trauma.
Volume 15, Issue 4, July 2014
Meghan Galer, MD et al.
A healthy 58-year-old man presented to the emergency department with right arm weakness first noticed while playing hockey that day. He could not recall the onset of injury, but endorsed several weeks of antecedent intermittent right shoulder discomfort.
Volume 15, Issue 4, July 2014
Ayan Sen, MD, MSc et al.
Non-invasive, continuous hemodynamic monitoring is entering the clinical arena. The primary objective of this study was to test the feasibility of such monitoring in a pilot sample of Emergency Department (ED) stroke patients. Secondary objectives included analysis of hemodynamic variability and correlation of continuous blood pressure measurements with standard measurements.
Introduction: Late obstetric emergencies are time critical presentations in the emergency department (ED). Evaluation to ensure the safety of mother and child includes rapid assessment of fetal viability, fetal heart rate (FHR), fetal lie, and estimated gestational age (EGA). Point-of-care (POC) obstetric ultrasound (OBUS) offers the advantage of being able to provide all these measurements. […]
The Ultrasound Screening Exam for Underlying Lesions (USEFUL) was developed in an attempt to establish a role for bedside ultrasound in the primary and preventive care setting. It is the purpose of our pilot study to determine if students were first capable of performing all of the various scans required of our USEFUL while defining such an ultrasound-assisted physical exam that would supplement the standard hands-on physical exam in the same head-to-toe structure. We also aimed to assess the time needed for an adequate exam and analyze if times improved with repetition and previous ultrasound training.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Minal Jain, MBBS, MPH et al.
Conflicting data exist regarding the association between the length of stay (LOS) of critically ill patients in the emergency department (ED) and their subsequent outcome. However, such patients are an overall heterogeneous group, and we therefore sought to study the association between EDLOS and outcomes in a specific subgroup of critically ill patients, namely those with acute ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack (AIS/TIA).
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Getaw Worku Hassen, MD, PhD et al.
Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN), defined as an increase in serum creatinine (SCr) greater than 25% or ≥0.5 mg/dL within 3 days of intravenous (IV) contrast administration in the absence of an alternative cause, is the third most common cause of new acute renal failure in hospitalized patients. It is known to increase in-hospital mortality up to 27%. The purpose of this study was to investigate the rate of outpatient follow up and the occurrence of CIN in patients who presented to the emergency department (ED) and were discharged home after computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen and pelvis (AP) with IV contrast.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Daniel J. Pallin, MD, MPH et al.
National guidelines suggest that most skin abscesses do not require antibiotics, and that cellulitis antibiotics should target streptococci, not community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA). The objective of this study is to describe antimicrobial treatment of skin infections in U.S. emergency departments (EDs) and analyze potential quality measures.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Matthew Babineau, MD et al.
The number of publications and how often these have been cited play a role in academic promotion. Bibliometrics that attempt to quantify the relative impact of scholarly work have been proposed. The h-index is defined as the number (h) of publications for an individual that have been cited at least h times. We calculated the h-index and number of publications for academic emergency physicians at the rank of professor.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
William F. Johnston, MD et al.
Defensive medicine is a medical practice in which health care providers’ primary intent is to avoid criticism and lawsuits, rather than providing for patients’ medical needs. The purpose of this study was to characterize medical students’ exposure to defensive medicine during medical school rotations.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Ashish R. Panchal, MD, PhD et al.
The ACGME requires that residents perform scholarly activities prior to graduation, but this is difficult to complete and challenging to support. We describe a residency research program, taking advantage of environmental change aligning resident and faculty goals, to become a contributor to departmental cultural change and research development.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Daniel J. Kim, MD et al.
Starting in 2008, emergency ultrasound (EUS) was introduced as a core competency to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (Royal College) emergency medicine (EM) training standards. The Royal College accredits postgraduate EM specialty training in Canada through 5-year residency programs. The objective of this study is to describe both the current experience with and the perceptions of EUS by Canadian Royal College EM senior residents.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Benjamin Good, MD et al.
Assessment of the acute psychiatric emergency is challenging and fraught with error. This paper, using legal cases, will discuss the assessment of new onset psychiatric illness, exacerbation of chronic psychiatric disease, and the suicidal patient. We will share diagnostic caveats, medical clearance, and suicide assessment tools.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Pankaj B. Patel, MD et al.
Informed consent is a required process for procedures performed in the emergency department (ED), though it is not clear how often or adequately it is obtained by emergency physicians. Incomplete performance and documentation of informed consent can lead to patient complaints, medico-legal risk, and inadequate education for the patient/guardian about the procedure. We undertook this study to quantify the incidence of informed consent documentation in the ED setting for lumbar puncture (LP) and to compare rates between pediatric (<18 years) and adult patients.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Andrew Charles Meltzer, MD et al.
Patients with abdominal pain often return multiple times despite no definitive diagnosis. Our objective was to determine if repeat emergency department (ED) use among patients with non-specific abdominal pain might be associated with a diagnosis of moderate to severe depressive disorder.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Timothy Horeczko, MD, MSCR et al.
Consensus guidelines recommend sepsis screening for adults with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), but the epidemiology of SIRS among adult emergency department (ED) patients is poorly understood. Recent emphasis on cost-effective, outcomes-based healthcare prompts the evaluation of the performance of large-scale efforts such as sepsis screening. We studied a nationally representative sample to clarify the epidemiology of SIRS in the ED and subsequent category of illness.
Volume 15, Issue 3, May 2014
Craig Harrison, MD, MPH et al.
The primary objective was to identify the most common reasons for intending to cut back on alcohol use, in emergency department (ED) and trauma patient populations. The secondary objective was to determine the association between reason to cut back on alcohol and education level.
Volume 15, Issue 2, March 2014
Amar Patel, MD et al.
A 58-year-old male with schizophrenia presented to the emergency department after being shot by law enforcement with two bean bag rounds. He was shot once in the upper abdomen.
Volume 15, Issue 2, March 2014
Christopher Coyne, MD et al.
A previously healthy 48 year-old male presented to the hospital with a 4-week history of “pimples” on his scrotum. This condition had progressively worsened, resulting in increased pain, swelling and redness to the genital region and buttocks.
Volume 15, Issue 2, March 2014
Nathan J. Cleveland, MD, MS et al.
A 28-year-old female was transferred to the emergency department from her physician’s office for further evaluation of tachycardia. She was being seen for a recent illness which included nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fevers. The patient endorsed fatigue, dyspnea on exertion, and extremity edema. She had no chest pain or cough. Exam revealed a pale, fatigued, mildly ill-appearing female with bilateral lower extremity edema and diminished breath sounds on the right.
Volume 15, Issue 2, March 2014
Jayten Shook, DO et al.
A 25-year-old woman presented to the emergency department (ED) with 4 days of progressive, left-sided neck pain and swelling. Additional symptoms included sore throat, dysphagia and left otalgia.
Volume 15, Issue 2, March 2014
Carlos J. Roldan, MD et al.
The use of phenytoin (PHT) as a cocaine adulterant was reported decades ago; that practice is still current. Ironically PHT has also been used for the treatment of cocaine dependence. A drug smuggler developed PHT toxicity after swallowing several rocks of crack. We investigated the current trends of PHT as a cocaine adulterant and its toxicological implications. We also reviewed the clinical use of PTH in relation to cocaine. The use of PHT as cocaine cut is a current practice. This may affect the clinical manifestations and the management of the cocaine-related visits to the emergency department.
