ACEP News

Concussion recovery takes longer if children have had one before

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:01:00 -0400

Children and teenagers take longer to recover from a concussion if they�ve had one before, especially within the past year, Boston Children�s Hospital emergency department physicians found in a study of 280 of their concussed patients published June 10 in Pediatrics.

The median duration of...

Striking rise in accidental marijuana poisonings

Tue, 28 May 2013 17:20:01 -0400

The number of unintentional marijuana poisonings in children rose markedly in Colorado after medical marijuana was decriminalized in 2009, with visits to one emergency department climbing from zero to 2.4% of all poisoning cases in just 2 years, according to a report published online May 27 in JAMA...

Viral testing cut antibiotic use in children with respiratory illness

msullivan@frontlinemedcom.com — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:05:01 -0400

WASHINGTON � A rapid viral testing panel decreased the odds of inappropriate antibiotic use by 67% in children hospitalized with an acute respiratory illness, allowing about 6% of the children taking them to discontinue them.

Use of such a test could be part of a facility�s overall antibiotic...

Ultrasound expedites pediatric emergency evaluations

msullivan@frontlinemedcom.com — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:25:02 -0400

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. � Ultrasound expedites clinical decision making and often dictates the next step to pursue when managing children in the emergency department.

"It makes sense to use ultrasound for pediatric patients, but there�s been a delay in picking up this idea. Only now is (the...

For overweight children, inject epinephrine in lower thigh

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:10:01 -0400

SAN ANTONIO � Overweight and obese children in need of epinephrine for anaphylaxis should be injected in the calf or in the lower thigh, rather than upper half of the thigh, to ensure intramuscular administration, according to findings from an ultrasound study of 93 children.

Ultrasound...

Get to the root of dental injuries

msullivan@frontlinemedcom.com — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:20:00 -0400

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. - About half of all children will have a dental injury sometime during their young lives, and when they do they're likely to show up, tooth in hand, at your emergency department.

The frequency of these injuries corresponds to two major developmental windows for...

Medical myth busting: Its time has come

msullivan@frontlinemedcom.com — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:40:01 -0400

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. � What�s in a myth?

Maybe just a fanciful explanation of how the elephant got his long nose.

Or maybe a long-standing medical mind-set whose time has come and gone, according to Dr. Sean Fox.

"I love mythology of all kinds � the fanciful, fun nature of the stories....

EBSOS implementation improves asthma guideline compliance

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:20:02 -0400

SAN ANTONIO � More of the children who present to the pediatric emergency department with asthma exacerbation received recommended care when the staff had instituted a nurse-initiated, evidence-based, standardized order set, according to Dr. Moira E. Breslin.

Specifically, the percentage of...

Head, neck infections rising among children

fcorrea@frontlinemedcom.com — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:32:00 -0400

Pediatricians in the emergency room are seeing more complicated head and neck infections, and more often. That's according to Dr. Keith Borg, emergency medicine physician and assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina. He gave some tips to choosing the best course of diagnosis...

AGA releases new medical position statement on constipation

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:10:02 -0500

Assessment of colonic transit in a patient presenting with constipation is recommended only after excluding a defecatory disorder and after treatment with laxatives and first-line pharmacologic agents fails, or after pelvic floor training in those with a defecatory disorder fails, according to a...