Katrina F Hurley, Eleanor A Fitzpatrick, Jill E Hatchette, Erin M Slaunwhite, Jonathan C Cherry
{"title":"Impact of dexamethasone dose on return visits at a pediatric emergency department.","authors":"Katrina F Hurley, Eleanor A Fitzpatrick, Jill E Hatchette, Erin M Slaunwhite, Jonathan C Cherry","doi":"10.1007/s43678-023-00550-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s43678-023-00550-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55286,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine","volume":"25 9","pages":"785-786"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10272537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Waiting to die: the hidden pandemic of ED crowding and excess mortality.","authors":"James Worrall, Paul Atkinson","doi":"10.1007/s43678-023-00571-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s43678-023-00571-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55286,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine","volume":"25 9","pages":"722-723"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10585653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Early prediction of ventricular fibrillation using electrocardiographic characteristics in prehospital suspected ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction: a case-control study.","authors":"Alain Tanguay, Johann Lebon, Denise Hébert","doi":"10.1007/s43678-023-00565-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s43678-023-00565-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Our objective was to determine characteristics of electrocardiograms (ECG) that predict ventricular fibrillation (VF) among prehospital patients with suspected ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in Québec.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We performed a matched case-control study of prehospital adult suspected with STEMI. Patients in case group (STEMI/VF+) were matched with controls (STEMI/VF-) for age and sex and then compared for ECG characteristics, including ST-segment elevations (STE) and depressions (STD), duration of interval complexes, general characteristics, and several calculated variables. Logistic regression was used to measure the association between ECG characteristics and VF development.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Overall, 310 prehospital patients with suspected STEMI were included in the analysis (case group, n = 155; control group, n = 155). We confirmed that the presence of TW-pattern complex (OR 7.0, 95% CI 1.55-31.58), premature ventricular contraction (PVC) (OR 5.5, 95% CI 2.04-14.82), and STE in V2-V6 (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.21-11.74) were electrocardiographic predictors of VF. We also observed that STD in V3-V5 (OR 6.5, 95% CI 1.42-29.39), atrial fibrillation (AF) ≥ 100 beats per minute (bpm) (OR 6.3, 95% CI 1.80-21.90), the combination of STE in V4 and V5, and STD in II, III and aVF (OR 4.8, 95% CI 1.01-22.35), and the presence of STD in ≥ 6 leads (OR 4.2, 95% CI 1.33-13.13) were also associated with VF development. Finally, simultaneous association of 2 (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.13-4.06) and 3 (OR 11.6, 95% CI 3.22-41.66) predictors showed significant association with VF.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In addition to some already known predictors, we have identified several ECG findings associated with the development of VF in patients with suspected STEMI. Early identification of patients with STEMI at increased risk of VF should help EMS providers anticipate adverse events and encourage use of defibrillation pads.</p>","PeriodicalId":55286,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine","volume":"25 9","pages":"728-735"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10216539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matthew B Douglas-Vail, Hanna R Parmar, David Migneault
{"title":"An unusual case of myoclonic convulsions after surgical intervention for essential tremor.","authors":"Matthew B Douglas-Vail, Hanna R Parmar, David Migneault","doi":"10.1007/s43678-023-00560-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s43678-023-00560-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55286,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine","volume":"25 9","pages":"778-779"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10218003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jeffrey D Smith, Karen Lemay, Shirley Lee, Janet Nuth, Jun Ji, Kim Montague, Gary E Garber
{"title":"Medico-legal issues related to emergency physicians' documentation in Canadian emergency departments.","authors":"Jeffrey D Smith, Karen Lemay, Shirley Lee, Janet Nuth, Jun Ji, Kim Montague, Gary E Garber","doi":"10.1007/s43678-023-00576-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s43678-023-00576-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Physician documentation plays a central role in the delivery of safe patient care. It describes a physician's clinical decision-making and supports essential communication between healthcare providers within the patient's circle of care. Good documentation can potentially also decrease a physician's medico-legal risk. This study provides examples of documentation issues attributed to physicians practicing emergency medicine as identified by peer experts in civil legal actions, regulatory authority complaints (College) and hospital complaints (collectively, medico-legal cases) in Canada.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a descriptive study and content analysis of medico-legal cases involving emergency department physicians from a national repository at the Canadian Medical Protective Association. Cases with peer expert criticism of an emergency physician's documentation, which were closed between 2016 and 2020, and occurred in an emergency department were included in our analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of the 1628 cases involving emergency medicine, our inclusion criteria identified that absent or insufficiently detailed documentation was present in 24% of cases (391/1,628). A detailed review of 20% of the cases (79/391), selected randomly, found that documentation issues were most often associated with the assessment and investigation stage of care. This pertained to documenting details of the clinical examination, relevant medical history, diagnosis, and differential diagnosis.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>For physicians practicing emergency medicine, criticism of documentation was frequently observed in medico-legal cases. Based on the findings of this study and the expert criticism related to documentation, emergency medicine physicians may consider reflecting upon their documentation of the care provided to determine if their documentation provides a clear and accurate chronicle of the care and the rationale for their clinical decisions.</p>","PeriodicalId":55286,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine","volume":"25 9","pages":"768-775"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10495505/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10229924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jessica Poliwoda, Debra Eagles, Krishan Yadav, Marie-Joe Nemnom, Charlotte Grace Walmsley, Lisa Mielniczuk, Ian G Stiell
{"title":"Outcomes of acute heart failure patients managed in the emergency department.","authors":"Jessica Poliwoda, Debra Eagles, Krishan Yadav, Marie-Joe Nemnom, Charlotte Grace Walmsley, Lisa Mielniczuk, Ian G Stiell","doi":"10.1007/s43678-023-00555-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s43678-023-00555-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Acute heart failure is a serious condition commonly seen in the emergency department (ED). The HEARTRISK6 Scale has been recently developed to identify the risk of poor outcomes but has not been tested. We sought to describe the management and outcomes of ED patients with acute heart failure and to evaluate the potential impact of the HEARTRISK6 Scale.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a health records review of 300 consecutive acute heart failure patients presenting to two tertiary care EDs. Two evaluators abstracted clinical variables, ED management and treatment details, and patient outcomes using the electronic health records platform (EPIC) and attending physicians verified the data. The primary outcome measure was a short-term serious outcome, as shown in Results. In addition, the HEARTRISK6 score was calculated retrospectively.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We included 300 patients with mean age of 78.5 years, 51.0% male, 56.3% arrival by ambulance, and 67.0% admitted to hospital. 25.3% experienced a short-term serious outcome 1) after admission (N = 201): non-invasive ventilation 14.9%, intubation 1.5%, major cardiac procedure 5.0%, myocardial infarction 2.0%, death 8.5%; 2) after ED discharge (N = 99): return to ED 21.2%, death 4.0%. Those initially admitted experienced a much higher proportion of serious outcomes compared to those discharged (29.9% vs. 16.2%). A HEARTRISK6 Scale cut-point score of ≥ 1 would have had a sensitivity of 91.0%, specificity 24.5%, and negative likelihood ratio 0.37 for short-term serious outcomes and suggested hospital admission for 80.7% of cases.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>There was a large range of severity of illness of acute heart failure patients and a wide variety of treatments were administered in the ED. Both admitted and discharged patients experienced a high proportion of poor outcomes. The HEARTRISK6 Scale showed a high sensitivity for short-term serious outcomes but with the potential to increase hospital admissions. Further validation of the HEARTRISK6 Scale is required before routine clinical use.</p>","PeriodicalId":55286,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine","volume":"25 9","pages":"752-760"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10568155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}