Annals of emergency medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Home Management Versus Primary Care Physician Follow-up of Patients With Distal Radius Buckle Fractures: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
In patients with a distal radius buckle fracture, we determine whether home removal of a splint and physician follow-up as needed (home management) is noninferior to primary care physician follow-up in 1 to 2 weeks with respect to functional recovery. We also compare groups with respect to health care and patient-level costs. ⋯ In patients with distal radius buckle fractures, home management is at least as good as primary care physician follow-up with respect to functional recovery. Implementation of the home management strategy also demonstrated significant cost savings.
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Data suggest an increase in neurologic-related hospitalizations during pregnancy. It is crucial for health care providers to develop effective strategies to evaluate this young, generally healthy cohort of patients for whom missed neurologic diagnoses can have devastating results. We aim to describe the epidemiology of this high risk patient population by investigating exam findings, imaging studies, and clinical outcomes of pregnant women presenting to the emergency department (ED) with acute neurologic complaints. ⋯ To our knowledge, our study is unique in that it incorporated all neurologic complaints. Headache was the most common complaint, followed by dizziness and seizures. Most of the headaches were related to first-trimester migraines. There was a high incidence of imaging used in clinical practice even when there was a normal neurologic examination result. A normal examination result does not adequately exclude serious intracranial pathology, and diagnostic vigilance is justified.
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Case Reports Randomized Controlled Trial
Risk of Leukemia in Children With Peripheral Facial Palsy.
Most children with peripheral facial palsy will not have a cause identified. Although leukemia can cause facial nerve palsy, the magnitude of the risk is unknown and recommendations for investigations are variable. ⋯ We estimate the rate of leukemia in children with acute-onset facial palsy who present to emergency departments to be 0.6% (95% confidence interval 0.2% to 1.6%). In accordance with these cases, we suggest consideration of a screening CBC count for acute-onset peripheral facial palsy presentations in children before initiation of corticosteroid treatment.
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Although induced abortion is generally a safe outpatient procedure, many patients subsequently present to the emergency department, concerned about a postabortion complication. It is helpful for emergency physicians to understand the medications and procedures used in abortion care in the United States to effectively and efficiently triage and treat women presenting with potential complications from an abortion. ⋯ This review also offers a comprehensive overview of management of abortion complications, including algorithms for more common complications and descriptions of less common but more severe adverse events. The article concludes with a recognition of the social stigma and legal regulations unique to abortion care.
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Multicenter Study
Use of Machine Learning to Develop a Risk-Stratification Tool for Emergency Department Patients With Acute Heart Failure.
We use variables from a recently derived acute heart failure risk-stratification rule (STRATIFY) as a basis to develop and optimize risk prediction using additional patient clinical data from electronic health records and machine-learning models. ⋯ Use of a machine-learning model with additional variables improved 30-day risk prediction compared with conventional approaches.