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How many of your patients have a CT scan during their ED evaluation? Many hospitals report rates of 20% or more. A significant number of these scans are of the abdomen and pelvis. It is important for the emergency physician to have the knowledge to view and interpret these images.
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Prompt, accurate assessment of the severity of injury and early initiation of appropriate critical care — including adequate oxygenation, ventilation and correction of hypotension — is of crucial importance in preventing deaths in children with severe trauma. This article reviews the critical aspects of airway assessment and management in the pediatric trauma patient.
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The first part of this series discussed abdominal pain in pediatric patients. This second and final part will cover abdominal pain in elderly, immunocompromised, and pregnant patients. Those 65 years of age and older constitute the fastest-growing segment of the population, and currently comprise about 12% of the U.S. population. This means that abdominal pain in the elderly will be a commonplace occurrence in EDs.
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The evaluation of a febrile child is an extremely common scenario in most emergency departments. Emergency physicians must decide which children require a work-up, the nature of that work-up, and the need for antibiotics with or without hospitalization. This process often is in the context of evaluating many febrile children, with only subtle clues as to which child truly may be ill. Unfortunately, it is common for inadvertent errors in judgment to end up in the courtroom as a subject of malpractice lawsuits. This months issue focuses on some of the risks and controversies in the evaluation of the febrile child.
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