Practical Summaries in Acute Care Archives – May 1, 2003
May 1, 2003
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Balancing Capacity, Occupancy Key to Solving ED Overcrowding
If you are dealing with a packed emergency department and waiting room, and wondering why all the changes in the function of your department have not produced better throughput, this article is a must-read for you. -
Assessing the Need for Pain Medication in the ED
The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of the visual analog scale to differentiate between patients with acute painful conditions desiring pain medication and those not desiring medication. -
Bispectral Index Monitoring in the ED: Is there a Role?
Can the bispectral index monitor quantify altered level of consciousness in emergency department patients? -
Severe Malaria — Nail It Before It Nails You
With modern air transportation, severe malaria easily is transported worldwide during its two-week incubation period and can present in any American emergency department. To better define the clinical spectrum of severe malaria, Bruneel and colleagues studied 188 adults admitted to a 1200-bed teaching hospital in Paris between 1988 and 1999. -
Special Feature: Pharmacology Update - Atypical Antipsychotics
Antipsychotic agents are a diverse class of drugs used to treat both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric conditions. This review will focus on the basic pharmacology, adverse effects, and toxicologic manifestations of the atypical antipsychotics. -
ECG Review: Pulmonary Artifact
Computerized interpretation of the ECG seen here described the rhythm as atrial fibrillation with a rapid ventricular response with a number of aberrantly conducted beats. Do you agree with this computerized interpretation? -
Trauma Reports Supplement: From Stingers to Fangs - Evaluating and Managing Bites and Envenomations
Whether a bite or sting results in an anaphylactic reaction, impressive local effects, or a life-threatening systemic reaction, the emergency physician must be able to institute appropriate and effective treatment. Emergency physicians also must be able to recognize clinical envenomation patterns, since some critically ill patients may not be able to convey the details of the attack. Since all areas of the country are represented in the envenomation statistics, all emergency physicians should be familiar with identification and stabilization of envenomated patients and know what resources are available locally for further management of these often complicated patients.