Articles: emergency-department.
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ABSTRACTSmall bowel obstruction (SBO) is a common cause of acute abdominal pain presenting to the emergency department (ED). Although the literature is limited, point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS) has been found to have superior diagnostic accuracy for SBO compared to plain radiography; however, it is rarely used in North America for this. ⋯ The application of POCUS for SBO is easily learned and applied in the ED. POCUS for SBO may obviate the need for plain radiography and expedite patient care.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
STOP!: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the efficacy and safety of methoxyflurane for the treatment of acute pain.
To evaluate the short-term efficacy and safety of methoxyflurane for the treatment of acute pain in patients presenting to an emergency department (ED) with minor trauma. ⋯ The results of this study suggest that methoxyflurane administered via the Penthrox inhaler is an efficacious, safe, and rapidly acting analgesic.
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ABSTRACTObjective:Despite growing adoption, the impact of prehospital initiation of therapeutic hypothermia on outcomes of cardiac arrest patients is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine if prehospital administration of cold intravenous fluids improved the time-to-target temperature. ⋯ Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients treated with prehospital cooling before arrival at our urban hospital did not have faster time-to-target temperature or improvement in outcomes compared to patients cooled immediately on emergency department arrival. Further research is needed to determine if any benefits exist from prehospital cooling prior to its widespread adoption.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2014
ReviewReview article: Emergency department data sharing to reduce alcohol-related violence: A systematic review of the feasibility and effectiveness of community-level interventions.
The present paper aims to review current evidence for the effectiveness and/or feasibility of using inter-agency data sharing of ED recorded assault information to direct interventions reducing alcohol-related or nightlife assaults, injury or violence. Potential data-sharing partners involve police, local council, liquor licensing regulators and venue management. A systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature was conducted. ⋯ Negative logistic feasibility concerns were minimal, with general consensus among authors being that data-sharing protocols and partnerships could be easily implemented into modern ED triage systems, with minimal cost, staff workload burden, impact to patient safety, service and anonymity, or risk of harm displacement to other licensed venues, or increase to length of patient stay. However, one study reported a potential harm displacement effect to streets surrounding intervention venues. In future, data-sharing systems should triangulate ED, police and ambulance data sources, and assess intervention effectiveness using randomised controlled trials that account for variations in venue capacity, fluctuations in ED attendance and population levels, seasonal variations in assault and injury, and control for concurrent interventions.
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ABSTRACTObjective:The objective of this study was to measure the current knowledge of Canadian emergency physicians and emergency medicine residents regarding computed tomography (CT) radiation dosing and its associated risks. ⋯ Canadian emergency medicine physicians and emergency medicine residents demonstrated identifiable gaps in knowledge surrounding CT radiation dose and risk.