Articles

Physicians’ use of pain scale and treatment procedures among children and youth in emergency primary care - a cross sectional study

Pain is a common symptom in children and youth attending casualty centres and emergency departments. The aim of this study was to acquire more knowledge about how pain in children is measured and handled by em...

Authors: Svein-Denis Moutte, Christina Brudvik and Tone Morken

Prehospital triage accuracy in a criteria based dispatch centre

Priority dispatch accuracy is a key issue in optimizing the match between patients’ medical needs and pre-hospital resources. This study measures the accuracy of a Criteria Based Dispatch (CBD) system, by eval...

Authors: Fabrice Dami, Christel Golay, Mathieu Pasquier, Vincent Fuchs, Pierre-Nicolas Carron and Olivier Hugli

Assessing the association between occupancy and outcome in critically Ill hospitalized patients with sepsis

Sepsis has a high prevalence, mortality-rate and cost. Sepsis patients usually enter the hospital through the Emergency Department (ED). Process or structural issues related to care may affect outcome.

Authors: Dean W. Yergens, William A. Ghali, Peter D. Faris, Hude Quan, Rachel J. Jolley and Christopher J. Doig

Sepsis in hemodialysis patients

Bacterial infections are very common in End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients. The diagnosis of sepsis in such patients is often challenging and requires a high index of suspicion. The aim of this study is t...

Authors: Gilbert Abou Dagher, Elie Harmouche, Elsy Jabbour, Rana Bachir, Dina Zebian and Ralphe Bou Chebl

Risk stratification by abbMEDS and CURB-65 in relation to treatment and clinical disposition of the septic patient at the emergency department: a cohort study

Sepsis leads to high mortality, therefore risk stratification is important. The abbMEDS (abbreviated Mortality Emergency Department Sepsis) score assesses sepsis severity and predicts mortality. In community-a...

Authors: Asselina A. Roest, Jan Tegtmeier, Joris J. Heyligen, Jeanette Duijst, Andrea Peeters, Hella F. Borggreve, Astrid ML Oude Lashof, Coen DA Stehouwer and Patricia M. Stassen

Reliability and validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in an emergency department in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional observational study

Depression and anxiety are prevalent psychiatric comorbidities that are known to have a negative impact on a patient’s general prognosis. But screening for these potential comorbidities in a hospital’s acciden...

Authors: Zohair A. Al Aseri, M. Owais Suriya, Hosam A. Hassan, Mujtaba Hasan, Shaffi Ahmed Sheikh, Adel Al Tamimi, Mashhoor Alshathri and Najeeb Khalid

Screening of mental health and substance users in frequent users of a general Swiss emergency department

The objectives of this study were to determine the proportions of psychiatric and substance use disorders suffered by emergency departments’ (EDs’) frequent users compared to the mainstream ED population, to e...

Authors: Francis Vu, Jean-Bernard Daeppen, Olivier Hugli, Katia Iglesias, Stephanie Stucki, Sophie Paroz, Marina Canepa Allen and Patrick Bodenmann

Are prehospital treatment or conveyance decisions affected by an ambulance crew’s ability to access a patient’s health information?

A shift from a predominantly emergency service, towards one where a wide range of conditions are managed and treated on scene presents numerous challenges for ambulance services and clinicians. The effective m...

Authors: Ollie Zorab, Maria Robinson and Ruth Endacott

Use of emergency care services by immigrants—a survey of walk-in patients who attended the Oslo Accident and Emergency Outpatient Clinic

The Oslo Accident and Emergency Outpatient Clinic (OAEOC) experienced a 5–6 % annual increase in patient visits between 2005 and 2011, which was significantly higher than the 2–3 % annual increase among regist...

Authors: Sven Eirik Ruud, Ruth Aga, Bård Natvig and Per Hjortdahl

A retrospective analysis of ethnic and gender differences in alcohol consumption among emergency department patients: a cross-sectional study

Previous studies of alcohol use have recognized several trends in consumption patterns among gender and age yet few have examined ethnic differences. This study examines the intra- and inter-ethnic differences...

Authors: Shahram Lotfipour, Victor Cisneros, Uzor C. Ogbu, Christopher Eric McCoy, Cristobal Barrios, Craig L. Anderson, Wirachin Hoonpongsimanont, Kristin Alix and Bharath Chakravarthy

Prevalence, outcomes and factors associated with adult in hospital cardiac arrests in a low-income country tertiary hospital: a prospective observational study

Research on cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has considerably increased in recent decades, and international guidelines for resuscitation have been implemented and have undergone several ...

Authors: Davidson Ocen, Sam Kalungi, Joseph Ejoku, Tonny Luggya, Agnes Wabule, Janat Tumukunde and Arthur Kwizera

Serum interleukin-6 level as an early marker of injury severity in trauma patients in an urban low-income setting: a cross-sectional study

Trauma is still the leading cause of death in many regions of the world. Severity scores have been developed to assist in management of trauma victims. Immune response to trauma has been known to positively co...

Authors: Paul K. Okeny, Peter Ongom and Olivia Kituuka

Cross-checking to reduce adverse events resulting from medical errors in the emergency department: study protocol of the CHARMED cluster randomized study

Medical errors and preventable adverse events are a major cause of concern, especially in the emergency department (ED) where its prevalence has been reported to be roughly of 5–10 % of visits. Due to a short ...

Authors: Yonathan Freund, Alexandra Rousseau, Laurence Berard, Helene Goulet, Patrick Ray, Benjamin Bloom, Tabassome Simon and Bruno Riou

Prevalence of injury and associated factors among patients visiting the Emergency Departments of Amhara Regional State Referral Hospitals, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Injury significantly affecting the health and well-being of the society.

Authors: Debrework Tesgera Bashah, Berihun Assefa Dachew and Bewket Tadesse Tiruneh

Acute toluene intoxication–clinical presentation, management and prognosis: a prospective observational study

Toluene is one of the most widely abused inhaled drugs due to its acute neurologic effects including euphoria and subsequent depression. However, dangerous metabolic abnormalities are associated to acute tolue...

Authors: Carlos Rodrigo Camara-Lemarroy, René Rodríguez-Gutiérrez, Roberto Monreal-Robles and José Gerardo González-González

Patients presenting with acute poisoning to an outpatient emergency clinic: a one-year observational study in Oslo, Norway

In Oslo, the majority of patients with acute poisoning are treated in primary care, at an emergency outpatient clinic with limited diagnostic and treatment resources. We describe the poisonings currently seen ...

Authors: Odd Martin Vallersnes, Dag Jacobsen, Øivind Ekeberg and Mette Brekke

A spatial analysis of heat stress related emergency room visits in rural Southern Ontario during heat waves

In Southern Ontario, climate change may have given rise to an increasing occurrence of heat waves since the year 2000, which can cause heat stress to the general public, and potentially have detrimental health...

Authors: Katherine E. Bishop-Williams, Olaf Berke, David L. Pearl and David F. Kelton

Changes in monthly unemployment rates may predict changes in the number of psychiatric presentations to emergency services in South Australia

To determine the extent to which variations in monthly Mental Health Emergency Department (MHED) presentations in South Australian Public Hospitals are associated with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)...

Authors: Niranjan Bidargaddi, Tarun Bastiampillai, Geoffrey Schrader, Robert Adams, Cynthia Piantadosi, Jörg Strobel, Graeme Tucker and Stephen Allison

Using routine clinical and administrative data to produce a dataset of attendances at Emergency Departments following self-harm

Self-harm is a significant public health concern in the UK. This is reflected in the recent addition to the English Public Health Outcomes Framework of rates of attendance at Emergency Departments (EDs) follow...

Authors: C. Polling, A. Tulloch, S. Banerjee, S. Cross, R. Dutta, D.M. Wood, P.I. Dargan and M. Hotopf

Police and clinician diversion of people in mental health crisis from the Emergency Department: a trend analysis and cross comparison study

The Northern Police and Clinician Emergency Response (NPACER), a combined police and clinician second response team, was created to divert people in mental health crisis away from the hospital emergency depart...

Authors: Brian McKenna, Trentham Furness, Steve Brown, Mark Tacey, Andrew Hiam and Morgan Wise

Metabolic networks in a porcine model of trauma and hemorrhagic shock demonstrate different control mechanism with carbohydrate pre-feed

Treatment with oral carbohydrate prior to trauma and hemorrhage confers a survival benefit in small animal models. The impact of fed states on survival in traumatically injured humans is unknown. This work use...

Authors: Elizabeth R. Lusczek, Tyrone Vincent, Daniel Lexcen, Vishwesh Kulkarni, Kristine Mulier and Greg Beilman

Cardiac arrest centers – the future?

Authors: Christian Storm

Is fever good? What do we actually know?

Authors: Jonathan KJ Rhodes

Latest evidence for the use of targeted temperature management in neurology

Authors: Rainer Kollmar

Guidelines update

Authors: Oktay Demirkiran

Common physiological responses during TTM

Authors: Guillaume Geri, Benoit Champigneulle, Wulfran Bougouin, Michel Arnaout and Alain Cariou

Effective temperature management

Authors: Ian Tweedie

Intra-arrest-cooling CON

Authors: Wilhelm Behringer

Intra-arrest-cooling PRO

Authors: Fabio Silvio Taccone

Prognostication of outcome after cardiac arrest and targeted temperature management

Authors: Christoph Leithner

Defining dosage

Authors: Tommaso Pellis

Post-cooling fever in post-cardiac arrest patients: post-cooling normothermia as part of target temperature management?

Authors: Cathy De Deyne

Shivering management during therapeutic hypothermia in patients with traumatic brain injury: protocol from the Eurotherm3235 trial

Authors: Jonathan KJ Rhodes, H Louise Sinclair, Claire G Battison, Bridget Harris and Peter JD Andrews

Side effect management

Authors: Tommaso Pellis

Targeted temperature management: a health economic perspective

Authors: Wilhelm Behringer

TTM 2.0

Authors: Christian Storm

Results and generalizability of the Target Temperature Management Trial and future research for patients admitted to intensive care after cardiac arrest

Authors: Niklas Nielsen

Cooling methodology: to influence or to control the temperature?

Authors: Tommaso Pellis

Let’s get started with targeted temperature management

Authors: Fabio Silvio Taccone

A remotely piloted aircraft system in major incident management: concept and pilot, feasibility study

Major incidents are complex, dynamic and bewildering task environments characterised by simultaneous, rapidly changing events, uncertainty and ill-structured problems. Efficient management, communication, deci...

Authors: Håkon B. Abrahamsen

A qualitative assessment of practitioner perspectives post-introduction of the first Continuous Professional Competence (CPC) guidelines for emergency medical technicians in Ireland

In November 2013, the Irish Regulator for emergency medical technicians (EMTs) introduced the first mandatory requirement for registrants to demonstrate evidence of continuous professional development (CPD)/co...

Authors: Shane Knox, Suzanne Dunne, Walter Cullen and Colum P Dunne

Injury characteristics and outcome of road traffic accident among victims at Adult Emergency Department of Tikur Anbessa specialized hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a prospective hospital based study

Road traffic injuries are the eighth leading cause of death globally, and the leading cause of death for young people. More than a million people die each year on the world’s roads, and the risk of dying as a ...

Authors: Mohammed Seid, Aklilu Azazh, Fikre Enquselassie and Engida Yisma

Prospective study of recovery from copperhead snake envenomation: an observational study

Although much is known about signs, symptoms, and management in the acute phase of crotaline snake envenomation, little is known about signs, symptoms, function, and quality of life during the recovery phase. ...

Authors: Eric J Lavonas and Charles J Gerardo

Non-specific complaints in the ambulance; predisposing structural factors

The pre-hospital assessment non-specific complaint (NSC) often applies to patients whose diagnosis does not match any other specific assessment correlating to particular symptoms or diseases, though some previ...

Authors: Maaret Castrén, Lisa Kurland, Sofia Liljegard and Therese Djärv

Clinicopathological review of 156 appendicectomies for acute appendicitis in children in Ile-Ife, Nigeria: a retrospective analysis

Acute appendicitis is one of the most common causes of acute abdomen in children. Late surgical intervention is often associated with increase morbidity and sometimes fatal outcome. We sought to determine the ...

Authors: Talabi O Ademola, Sowande A Oludayo, Olowookere A Samuel, Etonyeaku C Amarachukwu, Komolafe O Akinwunmi and Adejuyigbe Olusanya

Patient safety incident capture resulting from incident reports: a comparative observational analysis

Patient safety incident (PSI) discovery is an essential component of quality improvement. When submitted, incident reports may provide valuable opportunities for PSI discovery. However, little objective inform...

Authors: Martin A Reznek, Kevin A Kotkowski, Michael W Arce, Zachary K Jepson, Steven B Bird and Chad E Darling

BMC Emergency Medicine reviewer acknowledgement 2014

The editors of BMC Emergency Medicine would like to thank all our reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 14 (2014).

Authors: Giulia Mangiameli

Subjective reasons why immigrant patients attend the emergency department

Some patients visit a hospital’s emergency department (ED) for reasons other than an urgent medical condition. There is evidence that this practice may differ among patients from different backgrounds. The obj...

Authors: Ibrahim Mahmoud, Rob Eley and Xiang-Yu Hou

Predictors for outcome among cardiac arrest patients: the importance of initial cardiac arrest rhythm versus time to return of spontaneous circulation, a retrospective cohort study

In the past decade, early treatment of cardiac arrest (CA) victims has been improved in several ways, leading to more optimistic over all prognoses. However, the global survival rate after out-of-hospital CA (...

Authors: Ida Wibrandt, Kristine Norsted, Henrik Schmidt and Jens Schierbeck

Nine out of ten trauma calls to a Norwegian hospital are avoidable: a retrospective analysis

Our aim was to estimate the degree of overtriage (Injury Severity Score [ISS] ≤ 15) of trauma call patients in Nordland Hospital Bodø, Norway. We also determined the transportation time from injury to hospital...

Authors: Harald Stordahl, Eva Passas, Andreas Hopland and Erik Waage Nielsen