Internal and emergency medicine
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Multicenter Study
After the first wave and beyond lockdown: long-lasting changes in emergency department visit number, characteristics, diagnoses, and hospital admissions.
The first wave (FW) of COVID-19 led to a rapid reduction in total emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions for other diseases. Whether this represented a transient "lockdown and fear" phenomenon, or a more persisting trend, is unknown. We divided acute from post-wave changes in ED flows, diagnoses, and hospital admissions, in an Italian city experiencing a FW peak followed by nadir. ⋯ Non-COVID-19 hospital admissions were reduced by 12.8% (P = 0.001), 6.3% (P = 0.1) and 12.2% (P = 0.001), respectively. Reductions in ED flows, led by non-critical codes, persisted throughout the summer nadir of COVID-19. Hospital admissions for non-COVID-19 diseases had transient changes.
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Antithrombotic agents are widely used on the globe for prevention of thrombotic events such as atherothrombotic events and thromboembolic stroke in atrial fibrillation or for prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism. However, the net clinical benefit of antithrombotic intervention may differ substantially in various sub-population of patients. Here, the authors attempt to address the risk of serious bleeding in East Asian as compared to the other regions of the world. ⋯ Specific characteristics in East Asian such as higher prevalence of lacunar stroke may contribute higher risk of ICH in East Asian, but the detailed mechanism is still to be elucidated. In conclusion, further investigations are necessary to clarify the specific conditions where the risk of serious bleeding events in East Asian patients differ substantially compared to the global. In addition, further understanding of the mechanisms causing the different bleeding response in specific conditions in East Asian is awaited.
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Early management of sepsis and septic shock is crucial for patients' prognosis. As the Emergency Department (ED) is the place where the first medical contact for septic patients is likely to occur, emergency physicians play an essential role in the early phases of patient management, which consists of accurate initial diagnosis, resuscitation, and early antibiotic treatment. Since the issuing of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines in 2016, several studies have been published on different aspects of sepsis management, adding a substantial amount of new information on the pathophysiology and treatment of sepsis and septic shock. In light of this emerging evidence, the present narrative review provides a comprehensive account of the recent advances in septic patient management in the ED.
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An excess long-term mortality has been observed in patients who were discharged after a community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), even after adjusting for age and comorbidities. We aimed to derive and validate a clinical score to predict long-term mortality in patients with CAP discharged from a general ward. In this retrospective observational study, we derived a clinical risk score from 315 CAP patients discharged from the Internal Medicine ward of Cuneo Hospital, Italy, in 2015-2016 (derivation cohort), which was validated in a cohort of 276 patients discharged from the pneumology service of the Barakaldo Hospital, Spain, from 2015 to 2017, and from two internal medicine wards at the Turin University and Cuneo Hospital, Italy, in 2017. ⋯ Cox multivariate analysis identified the red blood cell distribution width (RDW), temperature, altered mental status, and Charlson Comorbidity Index as independent predictors. The derived score showed good discrimination (c-index 0.76, 95% CI 0.70-0.81; and 0.83, 95% CI 0.78-0.87, in the derivation and validation cohort, respectively), and calibration. We derived and validated a simple clinical score including RDW, to predict long-term mortality in patients discharged for CAP from a general ward.