Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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We report the case of a 13-year-old boy presenting with profound bradycardia following minor trauma. Our patient had gastroschisis at birth and has moderate learning difficulties but is otherwise fit and well. Whilst playing at home he fell sustaining a minor cervical hyperextension injury. ⋯ On discharge the patient was advised to wear a cervical hard collar when mobilising. This association of a craniocervical abnormality with learning difficulties, and gastroschisis has not been previously described. We discuss several other causes of odontoid peg instability, which may lead to severe autonomic effects with relatively insignificant trauma.
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Case Reports
Allergy evaluation after emergency treatment: anaphylaxis to the over-the-counter medication clobutinol.
Anaphylaxis is traditionally diagnosed and treated as an acute emergency but should be always followed by a search for specific triggers, resulting in avoidance strategies. This case report highlights the relevance of a detailed evaluation after anaphylaxis for diagnosis of a rare but potentially life-threatening allergy. Considering the high frequency of clobutinol application, IgE-mediated allergic hypersensitivity seems extremely rare and has to be distinguished from infection-associated urticaria and angioedema as well as non-specific summation effects. Accidental re-exposure has to be strictly avoided and therefore after identification of clobutinol as the anaphylaxis trigger, the patient received detailed allergy documents including international non-proprietary and trade names of the culprit drug.
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Blood cultures are routinely used to investigate suspected sepsis in the emergency department despite several studies demonstrating their limited influence on patient management. ⋯ Blood cultures taken in our emergency department rarely yield bacterial growth and over 2 years, only four seemed to directly influence patient management. Better guidelines are required for targeted use of blood cultures in the emergency department.
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Case Reports
Case of the month: Honey I glued the kids: tissue adhesives are not the same as "superglue".
A case of a father who treated his child's facial laceration with the home supply of "superglue" having been previously misinformed that superglue is used to treat lacerations is presented. The differences between tissue adhesive and superglue are described and suggest that emergency staff should be careful to avoid using the term "superglue" when using tissue adhesives.
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Case Reports
Lodged oesophageal button battery masquerading as a coin: an unusual cause of bilateral vocal cord paralysis.
An 11-month-old girl with an oesophageal foreign body was presented: from the radiographic appearance it was presumed to be a coin. Microlaryngoscopy 5 h after ingestion revealed a button battery impacted in the hypopharynx with severe damage to the oesophageal mucosa. ⋯ Repeat microlaryngoscopy demonstrated bilateral vocal cord palsy, which was presumed to be secondary to the involvement of the recurrent laryngeal nerves in the injury. We recommend that in the absence of a history of observed ingestion, it should be assumed that coin-like foreign bodies are button batteries until proven otherwise.