Articles related to Emergency Medicine

Based on cases reported to the CDC, this study reports an acceleration in case detection, with a dramatic increase in 2021. From 2019 to 2021, 17 states identified their first case of C auris; however, resistance to echinocandins increased threefold in 2021 compared to the previous two years. And because screening is not conducted uniformly across the United States, the true burden of C auris cases is likely higher than reported.

In this study, 800 patients admitted to ICU for severe CAP were andomized to 200mg IV hydrocortisone daily for 4 to 8 days or to placebo. By day 28, mortality rate was 6.2% versus 11.9% for the steroid and placebo groups, respectively. Rates for intubation and vasopressors were both approximately 40% lower in the test group as well.

Twelve-hundred (1,200) patients admitted for 48 hours or more for COVID were randomized to 2.5mg of apixaban or placebo twice daily for 30 days. The incidence of death or thromboembolism was low and similar in the two arms of this study. The study was terminated early and the authors say the results are imprecise.

Nearly 25% of fentanyl powder seized in 48 states in 2022 contained xylazine. Xylazine causes severe injection site wounds that can require amputation and puts drug users at higher risk for overdose and death.

According to an exclusive poll of healthcare professionals worldwide, patients receive the best care in the emergency room between 6 a.m. and noon. The survey respondents were given four multiple-choice options — between midnight and 6 a.m., 6 a.m. to noon, noon to 6 p.m., and 6 p.m. to midnight — and 41% said that between 6 a.m. and noon is prime time for the best ER care.

Commotio cordis — cardiac arrest after a blunt force trauma to the chest — is thought to occur because a hard object strikes the chest in a vulnerable moment in the cardiac cycle, setting off ventricular fibrillation. The rare condition has been described with a ball strike to the chest, but primarily in young men whose chests haven’t fully developed, making them more susceptible to the blunt force of a ball.