The American journal of emergency medicine
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A 44-year-old woman presented to the Emergency Department with abdominal pain. She had a history of fibroids and no prior surgeries. ⋯ The patient required laparotomy to relieve the intestinal obstruction after conservative therapy failed. Massive uterine fibroids is a rare cause of small bowel obstruction which requires the vigilance of Emergency Medicine physicians.
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Acute gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is one of the most important and the common causes of patients visiting the emergency department. Dehydrated state leads to increased blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and decreased albumin level. Many scoring systems had been developed to predict outcomes for patients with GI bleeding. Among the many scoring systems, the AIMS65 score was a simple and accurate risk assessment scoring tool. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the prognostic performance of the blood urea nitrogen to serum albumin ratio (B/A ratio) compared to the AIMS65 score tool in elderly patients with GI bleeding. ⋯ The B/A ratio is as simple and useful tool for predicting outcomes for old aged GI bleeding patients as the AIMS65 score.
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Foreign body aspiration (FBA) is a rare, but potentially fatal condition frequently seen in the emergency department. Bronchoscopy plays a major role in its diagnosis and treatment. In patients with laryngectomy, the strategies for airway maintenance and foreign body retrieval are limited. ⋯ TEP migration is rare, but represents a risk for FBA. Initial imaging in the emergency department can be misleading, requiring a high degree of suspicion, as the TEP device may not be seen in standard chest radiography. Flexible bronchoscopy under moderate sedation in conjunction with forceps and retrieval basket may be appropriate for treatment of FBA in patients with laryngectomy and can be performed in the emergency department, preventing hospital admission.