The American journal of emergency medicine
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Comparative Study
Presentation and outcomes of end stage liver disease patients presenting with septic shock to the emergency department.
Patients with end stage liver disease (ESLD) are particularly vulnerable to sepsis. ESLD patients are often excluded from controlled sepsis trials and more data are needed to guide the management of this population. ⋯ Patients with ESLD comprise a small but important subgroup of patients with ED septic shock that experience high mortality compared to patients without ESLD. Maximum ED lactate and pneumonia as the source of sepsis are independently associated with adverse outcome and may be used for early recognition of high-risk ESLD sepsis patients.
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In the prehospital setting, early identification of septic shock (SS) with high risk of mortality aims to initiate early treatments and to decide delivery unit (emergency department (ED) or intensive care unit (ICU)). In this context, there is a need for a prognostic measure of severity and death in order to early detect patients with a higher risk of pejorative evolution. In this study, we describe the association between prehospital shock index (SI) and mortality at day 28 of patients with SS initially cared for in the prehospital setting by a mobile intensive care unit (MICU). ⋯ In this study, we report an association between prehospital SI and mortality of patients with prehospital SS. A SI > 0.9 is a readily available tool correlated with increased mortality of patients with SS initially cared for in the prehospital setting.
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The outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been of concern to health care workers (HCW's) in the emergency department (ED) due to potential exposure and transmission. This case report describes a man who was referred to the ED for abdominal and testicular pain who was subsequently found to test positive for COVID-19. Due to the lack of respiratory symptoms, proper protective equipment (PPE) was not donned, and it led to several patients and health care workers being exposed. Given recent new descriptions of patients who present atypically, full PPE for all patients may be considered as community spread increases.
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Observational Study
Added value of inflammatory markers to vital signs to predict mortality in patients suspected of severe infection.
To evaluate the added value of inflammatory markers to vital signs to predict mortality in patients suspected of severe infection. ⋯ The inflammatory markers except C-reactive protein showed added predictive value to vital signs. Future studies should focus on developing and validating prediction models for use in individualized predictions including both vital signs and the significant markers.
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Homeless patients tend to visit Emergency Departments (EDs) more frequently than the non-homeless population. The goal of this study was to assess differences in chief complaint, medical conditions, and disposition between homeless patients compared to non-homeless patients presenting to an urban ED. ⋯ This study found that homeless patients had a significantly higher association with psychiatric diagnoses and greater ED utilization than non-homeless. This suggests the importance of increased access to consistent psychiatric care and follow up within the homeless population.