J Emerg Med
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Case Reports
Should Emergency Department Patients with End-of-Life Directives be Admitted to the ICU?
Whether emergency physicians should utilize critical care resources for patients with advance care planning directives is a complex question. Because the cost of intensive care unit (ICU)-level care, in terms of human suffering and financial burden, can be considerable, ICU-level care ought to be provided only to those patients who would consent and who would benefit from it. ⋯ End-of-life care directives should not automatically exclude patients from the ICU. Rather, ICU admission should be based upon the alignment of uniquely beneficial treatment offered by the ICU and patients' values and stated goals of care.
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Severe secondary or delayed postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is rare and affects 0.23-3% of all pregnancies. It happens between 24 hours to 12 weeks postdelivery. These PPHs occur more often during normal vaginal delivery; only a small subset of these PPHs occur after cesarean section. The top differential diagnoses of both primary and secondary PPH are different, and as a result, the management may be different. Although uterine atony causes 80% of primary PPHs, extensive literature review exposed the rarity of it in the setting of secondary PPH. ⋯ A 27-year-old woman presented to the emergency department 1 week after a cesarean section for severe vaginal bleeding that started an hour earlier. The patient required rigorous uterine massage for approximately 30 min along with oxytocin, carboprost, methergine, and misopristol before bleeding subsided. She required 1 unit of O- blood transfusion during resuscitation and still had a hemoglobin drop of 2.7 g/dL from arrival to after bleeding subsided. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: PPH is a life-threatening condition that emergency physicians rarely encounter and may be uncomfortable managing. It is important to be familiar with the differential diagnosis of both primary and secondary PPH and the management of each of the causes.
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Pressure cookers are common kitchen appliances with a good safety record and only rare associated explosions. ⋯ Here we present a case of unintentional pressure cooker explosion leading to polytrauma with injuries including pneumothorax, intracranial hemorrhage, open skull fracture, and multiple facial fractures. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Extreme forces and temperatures are involved in pressure cooking. Given the infrequent but real risk of mechanical failure and the increasing use of such devices to create intentional explosions, emergency physicians should be aware of the potentially significant blast injuries that can be associated with them.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Does Intravenous Lactated Ringer's Solution Raise Serum Lactate?
Serum lactate increases in states of severe sepsis and shock, but its interpretation may be subject to confounders. Lactated Ringer's solution (LR) is used in the resuscitation of septic patients and contains 28 mmol/L of sodium lactate. ⋯ In healthy individuals, a modest but significant rise in mean serum lactate was seen after a 30 cc/kg LR bolus. There was no difference in mean serum lactate when comparing a 30 mL/kg bolus of NS to LR.