The American journal of emergency medicine
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The United States is currently experiencing a public health crisis of opioid addiction, which has its genesis in an industry marketing effort that successfully encouraged clinicians to prescribe opioids liberally, and asserted the safety of prescribing opioids for chronic non-cancer pain, despite a preponderance of evidence demonstrating the risks of dependence and misuse. The resulting rise in opioid use has pushed drug overdose deaths in front of motor vehicle collisions to become the leading cause of accidental death in the country. Emergency providers frequently treat patients for complications of opioid abuse, and also manage patients with acute and chronic pain, for which opioids are routinely prescribed. ⋯ In opioid-naive patients, this is accomplished by a careful consideration of the likelihood of benefit and harm of an opioid prescription for acute pain. If opioids are prescribed, the chance of harm is reduced by matching the number of pills prescribed to the expected duration of pain and selecting an opioid preparation with low abuse liability. Patients who present to acute care with exacerbations of chronic pain or painful conditions associated with opioid misuse are best managed by treating symptoms with opioid alternatives and encouraging treatment for opioid addiction.
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Several reports have compared the efficacy of linezolid (LZD) in Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections with that of vancomycin (VCM); however, these two antibiotics for the treatment of nosocomial MRSA pneumonia in elderly patients has not been well evaluated. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of LZD compared with VCM for the treatment of elderly patients with nosocomial MRSA pneumonia in a retrospective chart review of a cohort. ⋯ LZD may be more efficacious than VCM for treating elderly patients with nosocomial MRSA pneumonia.
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Ketamine is commonly used in the emergency department for short, painful procedures. We describe changes in blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) during procedural sedation with ketamine, as these changes have not been well described in children. ⋯ Ketamine administered during procedural sedation for painful procedures causes a statistically significant but modest increase in SBP, DBP, and HR. Orthopedic manipulation further increases BP.