Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Increasing the size of medical school classes has resulted in the use of community hospitals for emergency medicine (EM) clerkships. While differences in clinical experience are expected, it is unclear if they are significant. The authors set out to investigate whether or not clinical site affects student performance on a standard written exam as a measure of medical knowledge. ⋯ This study found no evidence that clerkship site affected final exam score. Academic EM clerkships may consider partnering with other hospitals for clinical experiences without compromising education.
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Multicenter Study
Emergency department presentation of children with tuberculosis.
The objectives were to describe emergency department (ED) presentations of children with tuberculosis (TB) disease and assess the utility in children of TB screening tools developed for adults. ⋯ The point of entry to health care for many children with TB is the ED. The more protean manifestations of TB in children can decrease the utility of screening tools developed to identify adults with TB. While TB in adults often is a microbiologic diagnosis, childhood TB often is an epidemiologic diagnosis. Therefore, questioning caregivers about TB risk factors in the family may identify a higher percentage of children with possible TB.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Paramedic laryngoscopy in the simulated difficult airway: comparison of the Venner A.P. Advance and GlideScope Ranger video laryngoscopes.
This study assesses intubation times and potential trauma with two new portable video laryngoscopes, the GlideScope Ranger (GSR) and the Venner A.P. Advance (APA), in a simulated difficult prehospital airway. The GSR has a hockey stick shape and is inserted by a different (midline) technique compared with direct laryngoscopy and requires the use of a stylet. The APA has a handle similar to a direct laryngoscope, but with an angulated difficult airway blade. The APA is designed to have an intuitive insertion technique somewhat similar to that of direct laryngoscopy (lateral tongue displacement) and has a guiding mechanism that foregoes the need for a stylet. ⋯ Following a brief demonstration to paramedics naïve to video laryngoscopy, the APA demonstrated earlier intubation, fewer additional discrete forward advances of the tube, and less participant-judged subjective trauma when compared to the GSR in this simulation model.
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Although targeted screening of patients at high risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the emergency department (ED) improves patient outcomes and may prevent HIV transmission, ED-based screening programs incur additional costs and have thus not been widely scaled up. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of ED-based targeted HIV screening as implemented in actual practice. ⋯ Targeted HIV screening, as implemented in an urban ED, is cost saving and increases quality-adjusted life expectancy.
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To determine the sensitivity and specificity of the San Francisco Syncope Rule (SFSR) electrocardiogram (ECG) criteria for determining cardiac outcomes and to define the specific ECG findings that are the most important in patients with syncope. ⋯ The ECG criteria from the SFSR are relatively simple, and if used correctly can help predict which patients are at risk of cardiac outcomes. Furthermore, any left bundle branch block conduction problems or any nonsinus rhythms found during the ED stay should be especially concerning for physicians caring for patients presenting with syncope.