Pediatric Emergency Medicine
RSSArticles
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Pediatric Airway Management
Pediatric patients frequently present with respiratory complaints. Fortunately, most children respond well to simple medical interventions. Understanding a child's anatomic and physiologic differences is critical to effectively preventing respiratory failure and stabilizing a child when it occurs.
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Anaphylaxis: The Underrecognized Killer
This article will cover the presentation and emergency department (ED) management of allergic reactions in children, focusing on anaphylaxis. The current definition and recommended guidelines are reviewed.
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Infantile Vomiting
Every viral season, something gets missed. All vomiting is not acute gastroenteritis! The clinician needs to have a thorough understanding of the process of vomiting to formulate a complete differential accurately and in a timely manner. A complete history, physical exam, and targeted diagnostic testing are used to ensure an accurate diagnosis with effective management is instituted.
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Pediatric Syncope: Current Status of Diagnostic Evaluation and Management
Children may present to the emergency department with a potential syncopal event. Although the presentation is unusual, everyone fears missing a cardiac issue. The authors present a concise review, focusing on the history, physical exam, and ECG, of how to evaluate and manage a child with syncope, differentiating other mimics and discussing the current therapeutic approach to the most common diagnosis.
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Pediatric Pain Management in the Emergency Department
Pain management in the pediatric population has long been a focus of healthcare providers; nevertheless, gaps in providing adequate and timely pain management remain an area of concern in EDs. This article will provide guidance for the recognition and successful management of pediatric pain in the ED setting. The authors first present definitions of pain and discuss the assessment of pain in a child, as well as common barriers to appropriate pediatric pain management in the ED. Then, the article will focus on the different aspects of pain and techniques of managing discomfort, including: anxiolysis, non-pharmacological strategies, topical medications, oral analgesics, parenteral medications, discharge medications, and misconceptions and facts about opioid analgesics. Pain control in conjunction with procedural sedation is beyond the scope of this article.
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Pediatric Procedural Sedation
Procedural sedation is a critical skill to facilitate the performance of necessary diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in children. The clinician must have knowledge of the preparatory steps, indications, pharmacologic agents, monitoring, and recovery phase to safely and effectively perform this necessary adjunct to many common procedures. The authors review steps, current recommendations, and options to utilize procedural sedation skillfully in children. In addition, they present guidelines for managing adverse events that may be associated with the administration of procedural sedation.
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An Approach to Household Toxicological Emergencies in the Pediatric Patient
Patients with toxic ingestions most often will present to the emergency department as either a well-appearing patient with a known ingestion or as an ill-appearing patient with an unknown or suspected ingestion. This article will present the approach to both of these circumstances, discussing treatment and monitoring of specific overdoses as well as the initial approach to an ill child with a suspected overdose. The focus will be on common and accidental ingestions of toxins by pediatric patients.
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Noninvasive Ventilation and Acute Respiratory Failure
MONOGRAPH: Noninvasive ventilation indications, contraindications, and the growing body of literature supporting its use in a variety of clinical scenarios.
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Foreign Bodies of the Head and Neck
MONOGRAPH: Diagnosing and managing ear, nose, and throat foreign bodies with discussion separated by location.
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Current ED Management of Abscesses in Children
MONOGRAPH: Timely, appropriate management is critical to achieve the best possible outcome. The authors review the current best practice options.