The American journal of emergency medicine
-
Case Reports
Visual hallucination as presenting symptom for acute parieto-occipital cerebrovascular accident.
Visual hallucinations are visual perceptions that are not associated with a real object. Visual hallucinations are often associated with dementia, eye disease, visual pathway disease, psychiatric disorders, delirium, migraines, ictal phenomena, or medication effects. We report a case of a 74-year-old woman with a previous cerebrovascular accident(CVA) without residual deficit and no previous psychiatric history presenting for one week of worsening hallucinations progressing from shapes to cats to human figures in the left visual field. ⋯ She continues to have infrequent hallucinations of floating hands and fingers at follow-up appointment 2 weeks after the initial presentation to the Emergency Department. Posterior circulation CVAs can present with subtle or unusual symptoms. CVA should be included in the differential for new onset hallucinations, particularly in elderly patients.
-
Case Reports
Pyometra: Atypical cause of pediatric abdominal pain following complicated appendicitis.
This case is significant to the practice of emergency medicine and describes a unique post-operative infection that to my knowledge has not been described in this age group or under this set of circumstances before. Pyometra is a rare disease that is classically seen in an older cohort, and not commonly on the differential for pediatric patients presenting to the ED with vaginal discharge and fever. While post operative complications such as abscesses may be common following a surgery, intrauterine infections in this context are rare and the treatment is unique. It is important for emergency physicians to have knowledge of pyometra to keep on their differential for abdominal pain and fever after surgery, as well as be familiar with its management and which consultants may need to get involved.