Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
An RCT of oxycodone/ acetaminophen versus acetaminophen alone for emergency department patients with musculoskeletal pain refractory to ibuprofen.
Use of oral opioids does not result in more pain relief than nonopioid alternatives when administered to patients as first-line treatment for acute musculoskeletal pain. This study compared the efficacy of oxycodone/acetaminophen to that of acetaminophen alone as second-line treatment for patients with acute musculoskeletal pain who were administered prescription-strength ibuprofen and reported insufficient relief 1 h later. ⋯ Among patients with acute musculoskeletal pain refractory to oral ibuprofen, oxycodone/acetaminophen resulted in slightly greater pain relief than acetaminophen, but this was associated with more medication-related adverse events.
-
Multicenter Study Observational Study
Sex-related Differences in D-dimer Levels for Venous Thromboembolism Screening.
D-dimer is generally considered positive above 0.5 mg/L irrespective of sex. However, women have been shown to be more likely to have a positive D-dimer after controlling for other factors. Thus, differences may exist between males and females for using D-dimer as a marker of venous thromboembolic (VTE) disease. We hypothesized that the accuracy of D-dimer tests may be enhanced by using appropriate cutoff values that reflect sex-related differences in D-dimer levels. ⋯ Differences in D-dimer levels between males and females are diagnosis specific; however, there was no significant difference in optimal cutoff values for excluding PE and DVT between the sexes.
-
The aim of our study was to evaluate the test characteristics of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) performed by emergency physicians with varying levels of experience among children having undergone diagnostic radiology ultrasound for intussusception in a pediatric emergency department (PED). ⋯ This study demonstrated a very good sensitivity and specificity of POCUS for intussusception in children when performed by multiple emergency physicians with varying POCUS experience.