Emergency medicine (Fremantle, W.A.)
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Emerg Med (Fremantle) · Mar 2002
Comparative StudyOutcome of emergency department patients with delayed admission to an intensive care unit.
To compare 30 day mortality, length of stay and cost for adult emergency department patients with a delay in intensive care unit admission of up to 24 h with a group of patients admitted directly from the emergency department to the intensive care unit. ⋯ Our study shows that patients transferred to the intensive care unit within 24 h of ward admission from the emergency department had a significant increase in 30 day mortality compared with patients admitted to the intensive care unit directly from the emergency department, but no difference was found in terms of length of stay and cost.
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Emerg Med (Fremantle) · Mar 2002
Case ReportsMassive overdose with controlled-release carbamazepine resulting in delayed peak serum concentrations and life-threatening toxicity.
Peak serum levels following overdose with immediate-release formulations of carbamazepine have been reported to occur up to 2 days postingestion. We report a case of poisoning with carbamazepine controlled-release resulting in peak levels 96 h postingestion. ⋯ Unrecognized poisoning with controlled-release carbamazepine has the potential to produce significant delayed carbamazepine toxicity and delayed peak serum carbamazepine concentrations. This may occur much later than previously reported with immediate-release carbamazepine preparations.
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To describe the triage of children in a sample of mixed and paediatric emergency departments in Australia in 1999 and to measure the inter-rater reliability of the National Triage Scale when used by triage nurses for the triage of paediatric patients. ⋯ Use of the National Triage Scale for the triage of paediatric patients by triage staff is not consistent and there are significant differences between the triage practices of paediatric and mixed emergency departments.
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Snake bite envenomation typically requires treatment with effective first aid and antivenom. There is a spectrum of envenomation seen, which includes mild envenomation, but this has not been reported previously. ⋯ The patients had a benign clinical course without receiving antivenom. We strongly recommend that if clinicians are considering not treating any envenomated patients with antivenom, they do so only on expert advice.