The American journal of emergency medicine
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Clinical Trial
Electromyography activity of selected trunk muscles during cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Understanding trunk muscle activity during chest compression may improve cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training strategies of CPR or prevent low back pain. This study investigates the trunk muscle activity pattern of chest compression in health care providers to determine the pattern alternation during chest compression. ⋯ We suggest that the muscle power training for the pectoralis major, erector spinae, and rectus abdominis could be helpful for health care providers. Keeping muscle activity balance of bilateral gluteus maximus and maintaining the same level of EMG ratios might be the keys to prevent low back pain while performing CPR.
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The use of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for low-acuity pediatric problems is well documented. Attempts have been made to curb potentially unnecessary transports, including using EMS dispatch protocols, shown to predict acuity and needs of adults. However, there are limited data about this in children. The primary objective of this study is to determine the pediatric emergency department (PED) resource utilization (surrogate of acuity level) for pediatric patients categorized as "low-acuity" by initial EMS protocols. ⋯ While this EMS system did not well predict overall resource utilization, it safely identified most low-acuity patients, with a low under-triage rate. This study identifies subgroups of patients that could be managed without emergent transport and can be used to further refine current protocols or establish secondary triage systems.
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This report presents a 16-year-old adolescent boy with intentional ingestion of a 6-cm-length iron nail in detention center 6 hours ago. There was no symptom and sign of acute abdominal pain. Abdominal computed tomographic scan was performed, and an iron nail was found in the left upper quadrant abdomen. ⋯ No painkiller was used after the surgery. The patient was discharged on postoperative day 3 without any complication. To our knowledge, it is the first report on removal of ingested foreign body located in jejunum using single-incision laparoscopic surgery technique.
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Hypokalemia is a common biochemical abnormality. Severe hypokalemia can produce cardiac rhythm alterations and neurologic manifestations. ⋯ Electrocardiographic alterations and neurologic manifestations completely disappeared after potassium replacement; however, prolonged potassium supplementation was required to achieve the normalization of plasmatic potassium levels. Consecutive figures show ECG improvement until normalization of ECG findings.
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Case Reports
Rapid spontaneous recovery after development of a spinal epidural hematoma: a case report.
Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma is a very rare clinical emergency. A permanent neurological deficit or even death may result if diagnosis and treatment are delayed. Many cases can be diagnosed upon detailed neurological examination and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. ⋯ A 46-year-old male patient was admitted to our emergency department because of rapidly evolving severe paraplegia following development of sudden-onset neck pain. Spinal MR imaging detected an epidural hematoma compressing the spinal cord at the C5–T1 level. Clinical and radiological follow-up showed that the patient recovered spontaneously in 48 hours without any need for surgical treatment.