The American journal of emergency medicine
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Trends in upper extremity injuries presenting to emergency departments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, there were substantial changes in United States (U.S.) emergency department (ED) volumes and acuity of patient presentation compared to more recent years. Thus, the purpose of this study was to characterize the incidence of specific upper extremity (UE) injuries presenting to U.S. EDs during the COVID-19 pandemic and analyze trends across age groups and rates of hospital admission compared to years prior. ⋯ Level III - Retrospective Cohort Study.
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Little is known about pain trajectories in the emergency department (ED), which could inform the heterogeneous response to pain treatment. We aimed to identify clinically relevant subphenotypes of pain resolution in the ED and their relationships with clinical outcomes. ⋯ We identified three novel pain subphenotypes with distinct patterns in clinical characteristics and patient outcomes. A better understanding of the pain trajectories may help with the personalized approach to pain management in the ED.
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To investigate the holistic characteristics of patients administered or prescribed opioids to treat pain in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Despite increasing awareness of potential implicit bias in managing pain in the ED, racial disparities in OAP still existed. More education and training on implicit bias would help with reduce the disparities. Also, our study result indicated that non-clinical factors may play a role in emergency physicians' decision making in OAP. Increased recognition of the variation and systemic efforts to address factors affecting the variability are needed.