Articles: emergency-services.
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Pediatric emergency care · Feb 1992
Emergency department laboratory evaluation of children with seizures: dogma or dilemma?
Seizure is a common problem evaluated in pediatric emergency departments. Serum chemistry analysis is often performed as a routine part of the diagnostic evaluation of children who arrive in the ED with seizure. From this retrospective study, we sought to determine 1) how often serum electrolytes (Na, K, Cl, CO2), total calcium, magnesium, ammonia, and glucose chemistries were performed, 2) the frequency of abnormalities detected, and 3) whether abnormalities resulted in a change in patient care. ⋯ One hundred five of 308 (34%) were experiencing their first seizure. There was no difference in the likelihood of having a test ordered for children with a first seizure, regardless of seizure category. We concluded that 1) abnormal serum electrolytes, total calcium, magnesium, and glucose rarely cause seizure in children and 2) routine use of these tests in the ED is costly and does not contribute to seizure therapy.
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Pediatric emergency care · Feb 1992
A one-year series of pediatric emergency department wheezing visits: the Hawaii EMS-C project.
During a 12-month period ending on November 30, 1988, data were collected on 2468 pediatric patients with wheezing who visited a pediatric ED. Cohort characteristics included: sex (64% male, 36% female), history of prematurity (12%), evidence of concurrent infection (82%), taking theophylline (35%), taking beta adrenergics (60%), taking cromolyn (6%), and taking corticosteroids (4%). The hospitalization rate was 10.5%. ⋯ Initial oxygen saturation (OSAT) correlated with disease severity as measured by hospitalization risk and the number of bronchodilator treatments required in the ED. A suggestion for categorizing the treatment of asthma based on past history is proposed. Using this system in conjunction with pulse oximetry, wheezing severity and appropriate therapy can be more objectively determined.
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To determine the potential usefulness of external cardiac pacing for the termination of sustained ventricular tachycardia in the emergency department setting. ⋯ We conclude that external noninvasive pacing may be an effective means of terminating ventricular tachycardia in the ED setting.