Articles: emergency-department.
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Pediatric emergency care · Sep 2014
A Computerized Child Passenger Safety Screening Program in the Emergency Department.
The emergency department (ED) can be an effective site for pediatric injury prevention initiatives, including child passenger safety. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the implementation of an ED child passenger safety program and to analyze the effectiveness of a computerized screening tool to identify car seat-related needs for children younger than 8 years. ⋯ A child passenger safety program can be successfully implemented in the ED. A computerized nursing screening tool increases compliance with screening and providing needed car seats.
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Observational Study
Evaluation of the current prognostic role of heart diseases in the history of patients with syncope.
Pivotal studies showed that the 1-year mortality was consistently higher in cardiogenic than in non-cardiogenic syncope 10 years later, further studies questioned these evidences, showing that the risk of death was only predicted by underlying heart disease and not from the syncope itself. Accordingly, nearly all the prognostic scales now include cardiovascular variables, but their definition is often neither unique nor precise and it might lead to an excessive hospitalization. ⋯ We recommend that emergency department physicians adopt a strict definition of heart diseases considered at risk to promptly identify all patients at risk for serious events, while avoiding an excessive hospitalization.
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The continuing shortfall of organs for transplantation has led to interest in Maastricht Category II (uncontrolled) Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) organ donation. As preparation for a proposed pilot, this study aimed to explore the potential of uncontrolled DCD organ donation from patients presenting in cardiac arrest to the emergency department (ED) who are unsuccessfully resuscitated. ⋯ Identifying potential organ donors in the ED who are unsuccessfully resuscitated from cardiac arrest may contribute to reducing the shortfall of organs for transplantation, although numbers are likely to be small. If such a programme was to be introduced during weekday working hours, there may be around four donors a year. However, even one additional donor per year from hospitals across the UK with an ED and a transplantation service would add considerably to the overall organ donation rate.
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Australian dental journal · Sep 2014
Dental emergencies presenting to a general hospital emergency department in Hobart, Australia.
Dental problems presenting to general hospital emergency departments (GHEDs) may create difficulties as there may not be appropriate facilities or personnel to manage them. The incidence and demographics of dental presentations to GHEDs in Tasmania are currently unexamined. This knowledge may be relevant in shaping dental service delivery. ⋯ Dental infections contribute a significant burden of ED dental presentations. Encouraging and facilitating patients to seek timely and appropriate primary care from dentists may decrease the number of presentations to ED, and the drain on time and resources. Additionally, this may spare patients from the unpleasant experience of an acute dental infection episode.
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Internal medicine journal · Sep 2014
Rapid rule out of myocardial infarction with the use of copeptin as a biomarker for cardiac injury.
Copeptin is a non-specific marker of an endogenous stress response. A dual biomarker marker approach involving the simultaneous use of troponin and copeptin assays may assist early exclusion of acute coronary syndrome in Australian emergency departments. The utility and limitations of this approach are discussed.