Children with abdominal pain: evaluation in the pediatric emergency department

In a retrospective study of children with abdominal pain in a pediatric emergency department, 371 children were identified during four seasonally diverse months. Half of the children were two to six years old, 32% were seven to 11 years old, and 19% were 12 to 16 years old. Forty-eight different diagnoses were made, but 10 diagnoses were given to 83% of the patients. We found an increased frequency of respiratory illnesses (12%) as compared to other studies. Appendicitis was the only surgical problem that occurred in more than one percent of the children. The diagnoses were classified as medical (64.4%), surgical (6.5%), and nonspecific (29.1%). chi 2 and multinomial logit analysis revealed that guarding and abdominal tenderness were the two symptoms which were most strongly associated with a surgical diagnosis. The goal of this work is to assist the busy emergency clinician with the difficult task of making expeditious and accurate diagnoses for children with abdominal pain.     

Managing pain in the pediatric emergency department

In summary, it is common to encounter children in pain in the pediatric ED. It is often impossible to avoid inflicting pain on some children in the ED. The proper management of this pain is thus essential. This management should be accomplished with a variety of narcotic and nonnarcotic analgesics, as well as local and topical anesthetics. Other agents such as nitrous oxide, and techniques such as hypnosis and transcutaneous nerve stimulation, have a more limited role in pain management. Gentle restraint and reassurance are of paramount importance.     

Back pain with cardiovascular collapse in a pediatric emergency department patient

Severe back pain in the pediatric patient is an infrequent complaint. The following case report illustrates the disastrous outcome for this patient with back pain secondary to aortic dissection. The most common predisposing disease process is hypertension, which exposes the aortic wall to high pressures and flows. Just as in the adult patient, the possibility of aortic dissection should be included in the differential diagnosis of acute onset of severe back pain with preexisting hypertension in the pediatric patient. A high index of suspicion is warranted.     

Gastric trichobezoar: an important cause of abdominal pain presenting to the pediatric emergency department

Abdominal pain is a common presenting complaint of children seen in urgent care settings. It is the manifestation of a wide variety of disease processes ranging from benign to immediately life-threatening. Gastric bezoars are among the etiologies of chronic childhood abdominal pain that, when undiagnosed, may result acutely in serious complications, including gastric ulceration, bleeding and perforation, intussusception, and small bowel obstruction. To reinforce the importance of including this entity in the differential diagnosis of abdominal pain, we present the case of a 10-year-old girl with a history of chronic epigastric complaints who was ultimately presented with acute small bowel obstruction following fragmentation and distal migration of her gastric trichobezoar. Finally, we review and briefly summarize the current literature regarding the etiology, diagnosis, and management of this disorder in children.     

Unusual cause of abdominal pain in pediatric emergency medicine

Atypical manifestations of acute hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection include ascites, pleural effusion, acute renal failure, aplastic anemia, and neurological manifestations. Although association of HAV and acute cholecystitis is known, presentation of hepatitis A infection with acute cholecystitis has not been reported in pediatric emergency medicine literature. Primary acute acalculous cholecystitis in children is rare and commonly attributed to systemic infections. We report a case of a child developing acute viral cholecystitis as a presenting feature of sporadic HAV infection and review HAV-associated cholecystitis in children. The article provides a brief illustration of evaluating acute abdominal pain in older children in the emergency department in a developing country.     

Serial bedside emergency ultrasound in a case of pediatric blunt abdominal trauma with severe abdominal pain

We present a case of a teenager with isolated left renal laceration with perirenal hematoma. The patient had presented with severe left upper quadrant (LUQ) pain following blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) sustained during a sledding accident. A screening bedside focused abdominal sonogram for trauma (FAST) rapidly excluded free fluid on two serial examinations, 30 minutes apart. It provided the pediatric emergency physician with a measure of diagnostic confidence that the patient could be safely transported to the CT suite for detailed delineation of his injury. Moreover, narcotic analgesia was liberally administered early in his illness course, without the fear of unmasking potential hypovolemia when it was known that he did not have gross intra-abdominal bleeding on his bedside ultrasound (US). It also provided a working diagnosis of the primary organ of injury. Our hospital, like many pediatric hospitals around the nation, does not have in-house 24-hour radiology support. We suggest that the use of the bedside US be extended to the stable pediatric patient in severe abdominal pain following BAT. It can serve as a valuable, rapid, noninvasive, bedside, easily repeated, fairly accurate triage tool to evaluate pediatric BAT with severe pain.     

Professional liability in a pediatric emergency department

The risk of professional liability resulting from care given in the pediatric emergency department is a growing concern. This retrospective study examined the patients, diagnoses, and outcome of all threatened and actual claims that originated in the emergency department of a pediatric teaching hospital from 1977 through 1988. Twenty-five cases were identified by the hospital risk manager from approximately 320,000 visits (8.0 cases/100,000 visits); 22 charts were available for review. Ages of the patients ranged from 2 weeks to 13 years (mean 2.9 years, median 3.0 years). The patients' payment status was private insurance (n = 10), state public aid (n = 5), and no third-party payment source was listed for 7 children. Ten patients (46%) visited the emergency department between midnight and 8:00 AM, when an attending physician was not present. Return visits within 2 weeks for the same complaint occurred in 10 cases. The majority of the patients were discharged home (n = 18), and all of them had appropriate, adequately documented discharge instructions. The final diagnoses fell into four general categories: minor trauma/abuse (n = 7), neoplasms/chronic illnesses (n = 7), infectious diseases (n = 6), and appendicitis (n = 2). Review of the charts before knowledge of the legal outcome raised quality-of-care issues in 41% of the cases (n = 9).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Medication errors in a pediatric emergency department

OBJECTIVE: To initiate investigation into the medication errors that occur in a pediatric emergency department. These errors have the potential for significant morbidity and mortality, as well as costly litigation. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all medication and intravenous fluid errors identified in a pediatric emergency department through incident reports filed over a 5-year period. An attempt was made to determine who was involved with the errors and what caused the errors. The patient outcomes were noted and classified according to clinical significance using previously published criteria. RESULTS: Thirty-three incident reports involving medication or intravenous fluid errors were analyzed. Most errors occurred on the evening and night shifts. Nurses were involved in 39% of reported errors; the nurse and emergency physician were jointly involved in 36%. The most common error was an incorrect dose of medication (35%) or incorrect medication given (30%). In one third of the cases, the family was not made aware of the error. In 12%, patients required additional treatment, and one was admitted to the hospital because of the error. There were no deaths. CONCLUSION: Incorrect recording of patient weights leading to an incorrect medication dose and failure to note drug allergy are common causes for medication errors in the pediatric emergency department. Incorrect drugs and i.v. fluids are given because of similar names and packaging. Many of the errors in the ED seem to be preventable.     

急诊科小儿镇痛和镇静的研究进展

小儿急诊治疗时常伴有外伤或疼痛.在急诊诊治期间,可能有必要进行某些疼痛或令人不适的诊疗操作.临床上需要急诊科医生为小儿提供安全、有效的镇痛和镇静.为此,我们对国外已发表的相关研究结果做一综述,主要包括以下几个方面:确保在急诊时小儿不会经受长时间或额外的疼痛;使用综合评估工具评估疼痛以分诊患儿;选择适当的药物、剂量和途径,在首次疼痛处理时即提供有效镇痛;尽可能选择无痛苦的方式给药(经鼻、调味糖浆)等;经常再次评估疼痛分数以确保有效镇痛,并留有足够时间来等待药物起效,同时使用非药理和药理的模式镇痛;避免"常规"进行一些不必要的致痛的侵入性操作;使用表面麻醉、局部麻醉和区域麻醉连同适当的安全程序镇静,以避免疼痛加剧.     

The activities of a pediatric emergency department. The emergency problems]

The authors reviewed records of admission at the Fist Ais-Emergency Service of "G. Gaslini" Children's Hospital, data referring both to in and outpatients. First of all we took into account epidemiological data analysing occurrence and types of diseases; at the same time a demographic study, which aimed to show a decrease in the child population in Genova, was performed. Secondly we compared these data with the real number of admitted patients: collected data showed that this service has been used excessively.     

规范儿科急诊预检与分诊

分析儿科急诊预检分诊的国内外现状,阐述急诊预检分诊的目的及正确实施预检分诊在急诊医疗服务中的重要性,提出对儿科急诊预检分诊的建议和设想.