Articles: emergency-services.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2024
Post-lockdown burden of road injury involving hospitalisation in Victoria, Australia: A statewide, population-based time series analysis.
Ever since COVID-19, short-term changes in transport injury patterns have been observed. The aim is to examine both the initial and the enduring impact of government lockdown and the pandemic on road injuries requiring hospitalisation and road fatalities. ⋯ Road injury requiring hospitalisation decreased significantly during governmental lockdown and has returned to three-quarters of pre-pandemic levels (except bicyclist injuries that have remained constant), but there is an increasingly disproportionate number of fatalities. This represents a new baseline of injury burden for EDs and hospitals that manage trauma patients.
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Hydrodissection is becoming increasingly recognized as a treatment for nerve entrapment syndromes in the orthopedic and rehabilitation world. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is the most prevalent nerve entrapment neuropathy, characterized by compression of the median nerve as it passes through the carpal tunnel. ⋯ This case report demonstrates the potential for an alternative approach to analgesia in the Emergency Department (ED) for patients presenting with pain related to CTS. Here we discuss a case of a 26-year-old female presenting with CTS symptoms and her successful treatment with ultrasound-guided hydrodissection in the ED.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2024
Health consumers' ethical concerns towards artificial intelligence in Australian emergency departments.
To investigate health consumers' ethical concerns towards the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in EDs. ⋯ Health consumers view AI as an emerging technology that they want to see comprehensively regulated to ensure it functions safely and securely with EDs. Without considerations made for the ethical design, implementation and use of AI technologies, health consumer trust and acceptance in the use of these tools will be limited.
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Observational Study
Optimizing outcomes: A retrospective analysis of discharge safety for elderly mTBI patients on anticoagulation therapy.
Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) pose a significant risk, particularly in the elderly population on anticoagulation therapy. The safety of discharging these patients from the emergency department (ED) with a negative initial computed tomography (CT) scan has been debated due to the risk of delayed intracranial hemorrhage (d-ICH). ⋯ In elderly patients on anticoagulation with mTBI and a negative initial CT, admission was associated with a higher risk of d-ICH compared to discharge. These findings have implications for clinical decision-making in this high-risk population.
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Reducing the door-to-balloon time (D2BT) in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients maximizes myocardial salvage and mitigates morbidity/mortality. ⋯ Nearly half of the patients studied failed to achieve the overall target D2BT for revascularization. The time from arrival at the CHB ED to diagnostic ECG was identified as a substantial contributor to this failure, with a median time almost twice that of the target and a quarter of all patients spending longer than 46.8 min. These findings highlight a need to improve the implementation of ECG triage and interpretation in the ED.