Pediatric emergency care
-
Pediatric emergency care · Feb 2005
Pain measurement in pediatric emergency care: a review of the faces pain scale-revised.
Addressing pain in children is an important task for emergency physicians. Current literature highlights a significant deficiency in our ability to assess and treat pain in this population. Multiple pediatric pain scales are available for use. This article will briefly review some of the major challenges in pediatric pain measurement and focus on the Faces Pain Scale-Revised as a valid tool that can be used in both clinical trials and everyday clinical practice.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Feb 2005
Case ReportsCardiac tamponade presenting as an apparent life-threatening event.
The initial emergency department (ED) evaluation of infants with an apparent life-threatening event (ALTE) often fails to identify a definitive cause for the event. Many children that present with an ALTE appear normal by the time they arrive to the ED. These factors can desensitize clinicians into prematurely discounting serious underlying causes of the ALTE or being less prompt in their evaluation of these patients. ⋯ Cardiac tamponade has not been reported as an underlying cause of infants presenting to the ED with an ALTE. Previously reported cases of cardiac tamponade in children have occurred as a complication of malignancies, cardiac surgery, trauma, infections, central venous catheter placement, rheumatologic, and autoimmune diseases. This case should serve as a reminder to clinicians to maintain a broad differential diagnosis and promptly evaluate all infants presenting with an ALTE.