Classically, pneumonia is defined as an infection of the lung parenchyma. However, worldwide, a variety of definitions exist, including fever, hypoxia, a constellation of other clinical symptoms, and radiologic findings. In pediatric and adolescent populations, early diagnosis will assist emergency department (ED) physicians with correctly managing and subsequently avoiding potential morbidity and mortality of this common infectious disease.
Foreign body ingestion is a common problem, especially in children younger than 3 years of age. Fortunately, most cases have uneventful outcomes, but the potential for a devastating complication exists. Button batteries are particularly dangerous, and timely and appropriate management is critical. This article comprehensively reviews pediatric foreign body ingestions.
While human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection no longer carries the death sentence it once did, it still carries an enormous cost both in terms of financial burden for treatment as well as the social and medical issues associated with long-term disease.
I see many patients brought by EMS from motor vehicle collisions and ground level falls. The majority arrive with a rigid cervical collar placed by the EMTs or paramedics because of neck pain or a concern about possible cervical spine injury based on the mechanism of injury. If the patient did not have initial pain, most will have developed pain by the time of arrival because of their placement in a rigid cervical collar and on a hard backboard.
Almost every emergency physician I know has missed a case of hypoglycemia in their career. I have. I have also been practicing long enough to have used "Dextrostix." Remember using them? Remember some of the values you obtained?
Stroke remains a leading cause of death, but the disability associated with a stroke can be devastating and costly. In past decades, little could be done to reduce the morbidity and mortality of stroke. But over the past decade, use of thrombolytics by specialized stroke centers has reduced the morbidity of survivors. However, the reduction of morbidity comes at a cost of an increase in intracerebral hemorrhage, often associated with death.
This issue is the second of a two-part discussion of cervical spine injuries.
Approximately one in five of children evaluated in the emergency department (ED) are physically abused. Emergency physicians (EPs) have a responsibility to consider abuse in the differential of every injured child.
