Patients with chronic pain can be some of the most difficult patients to deal with. They are often miserable and demanding, and their quest for pain relief can lead to addiction.
The authors of this issue discuss three types of drug-resistant bacteria that can colonize or infect emergency department patients. Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and, to a lesser extent, vancomycin-resistant enterococci are known to most emergency physicians.
Today's emergency physicians may find themselves responsible for initiating, sustaining, and even weaning patients on mechanical ventilation. This review will assist the emergency physician in providing quality respiratory support to these critically ill patients.
While fractures can be serious and limb-threatening, they are not the most common knee condition seen in the emergency department. Soft-tissue injuries or conditions constitute the majority of disorders that present with knee pain.
Often, the emergency department (ED) evaluation of a painful knee is a quick x-ray followed by discharge with the limb placed a knee immobilizer, the patient walking with crutches, a prescription for analgesics, and a referral to see an orthopedist next week.
It is common to see a patient with the end manifestations of hepatitis C in the emergency department (ED). However, the more important patient may be the one who is infected with hepatitis C but is unaware of the infection.
Very little else evokes the visceral response of watching someone vomit blood. Emergency physicians deal with bleeding in many arenas, but gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is one type that in the past has offered limited options for treatment in the emergency department.
This article emphasizes the means to uncover the most common and important infectious diseases affecting children who present to the emergency department having recently traveled to the developing world.
Part II of this series discusses the use of anticoagulants in the emergency department (ED) and some of the complications seen with their use. As our society ages, more and more patients are on chronic anticoagulants.
