American Journal of Emergency Medicine最新文献

Introduction: Heart failure (HF) is a common condition prompting presentation to the Emergency Department (ED) and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. However, there is limited recent large-scale, robust data available on the admission rates, evaluation, and treatment of HF in the ED setting.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of ED presentations for HF from 1/1/2016 to 12/31/2023 using the Epic Cosmos database. All ED visits with ICD-10 codes corresponding to acute HF were included. We excluded congenital heart disease and isolated right-sided HF. Outcomes included percentage of total ED visits, admission rates, troponin, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), chest radiography, and diuretic and nitroglycerin medication administration. Subgroup analyses of medications were performed by medication and route of administration (transdermal, sublingual/oral, and intravenous).

Results: Out of 190,694,752 ED encounters, 2,626,011 (1.4 %) visits were due to acute HF. Of these, 1,897,369 (72.3 %) were admitted to the hospital. The majority of patients had a troponin (90.3 %), BNP (91.1 %), and chest radiograph (89.5 %) ordered. 82.5 % received intravenous diuresis, while 46.2 % received oral diuresis. The most common diuretic was furosemide (78.4 % intravenous, 32.5 % oral), followed by bumetanide (9.5 % intravenous, 7.1 % oral), and torsemide (0 % intravenous, 8.1 % oral). Nitroglycerin was given in 26.0 %, with the most common route being sublingual/oral (16.6 %), followed by transdermal (9.2 %) and intravenous (3.5 %).

Conclusion: HF represents a common reason for ED presentation, with the majority of patients being admitted. All patients received diuresis in the ED, with the majority receiving intravenous diuresis with furosemide. Approximately one-quarter received nitroglycerin with the sublingual/oral route being most common. These findings can help inform health policy initiatives, including admission decisions and evidence-based medication administration.

Background: Various scoring systems are utilized to assess severe trauma patients, with one of the most commonly used tools being the International Classification of Diseases Injury Severity Score (ICISS) criteria derived from the Survival Risk Ratio (SRR) calculated using diagnostic codes. This study aimed to redefine the severe trauma scoring system in Korea based on the SRR for diagnostic codes, and subsequently evaluate its performance in predicting survival outcomes for trauma patients.

Methods: This study included trauma patients who visited Level 1 and 2 emergency departments (EDs) between January 2016 and December 2019, utilizing the Korean National Emergency Department Information System (NEDIS) database. The primary outcome of this study was in-hospital mortality. The new SRR-2020 value was calculated for each of the 865 trauma diagnosis codes (Korean Standard Classification of Diseases [KCD-7] codes, 4-digit format), and the patient-specific ICISS-2020 value was derived by multiplying the corresponding SRR-2020 value based on patient diagnosis. We compared the predictive performance for in-hospital mortality between severe trauma patients with an ICISS <0.9 based on the newly developed ICISS-2020 version and those defined by the previously used ICISS-2015 version.

Results: A total of 3,841,122 patients were enrolled, with an in-hospital mortality rate of 0.5 %. Severe trauma patients with ICISS-2020 < 0.9 accounted for 5.3 % (204,897 cases) that was lower than ICISS-2015 < 0.9 accounting for 15.3 % (587,801 cases). Among the 20,619 in-hospital mortality cases, 81.4 % had ICISS-2020 < 0.9, and 88.6 % had ICISS-2015 < 0.9. When comparing predictive performance for in-hospital mortality between the two ICISS versions, ICISS-2020 showed higher accuracy (0.95), specificity (0.95), positive predictive value (PPV) (0.08), positive likelihood ratio (LR+) (16.53), and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) (0.96) than ICISS-2015 for accuracy (0.85), sensitivity (0.88), specificity (0.85), PPV (0.03), LR+ (5.94), and AUROC (0.94). However, regarding sensitivity, ICISS-2020 < 0.9 showed a lower value of 0.81 compared to ICISS-2015 < 0.9, which was 0.88. The negative predictive value (NPV) was 1.00 for both versions.

Conclusions: The newly developed ICISS-2020, utilizing a nationwide emergency patient database, demonstrated relatively good performance (accuracy, specificity, PPV, LR+, and AUROC) in predicting survival outcomes for patients with trauma.

Background: Each year millions of children seek care in emergency departments, many of whom are from marginalized and minoritized groups who lack access to primary and preventive care. Law enforcement personnel are also commonly present in pediatric and adult emergency departments serving in a range of roles. Therefore, pediatric emergency departments sit at the nexus of the health system and the legal system for many vulnerable youth and families.

Objective: Herein, we explore several common specific legal issues surrounding policing of youth in the hospital setting: patient privacy and disclosure of information, questioning and visitation restriction, autonomy and decision making, restraints and use of force, and patient property.

Methods: Our team of legal scholars and clinician researchers examined the literature on policing of youth in healthcare settings and patients' legal rights in healthcare settings through searches using PubMed, Westlaw, and Lexis.

Findings: Through rigorous analysis of the medical literature, legal scholarship, and relevant case law, several important themes were identified which present challenges to clinicians caring for vulnerable children.

Conclusions and relevance: Pediatric clinicians, highly trained professionals in the medical and social care of youth and children, are often unaware of legal rules and procedures that guide law enforcement interaction with youth. This lack of knowledge may result in unknowing and unwitting violations of patients' rights while also compromising the quality of health care provided. Therefore, it is imperative that clinicians are educated on their roles and their institutions' roles in safeguarding patients' privacy and autonomy while still promoting effective collaboration with law enforcement.

Marchiafava Bignami Disease (MBD) is a reversible neurological disorder with can be difficult to diagnose initially due to variable neurological presentations that can be seen in patients. Physicians need to consider this diagnosis as the readily available treatment of thiamine can help reverse symptoms and prevent long lasting effects. We present the case of a 52-year-old man with a history of alcohol use disorder who presented with concerns for a cerebrovascular accident. The patient had neurological signs that were vague and included intermittent confusion, subtle droop to the lower lip, and ataxia in their limbs. MRI revealed restricted diffusion in the corpus callosum which helped confirm the diagnosis of MBD. Treatment with thiamine helped the patient get back to their usual state of health with no new neurological deficits. This case emphasizes that MBD is a rare neurological disorder that must be considered in patients with alcohol use disorder who present with varying neurological symptoms as early thiamine treatment can reverse symptoms.