OBJECTIVE:To characterize the ED utilization patterns of the elderly population using nationally representative data.METHODS:A secondary analysis was performed using the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), a nationwide, stratified probability sample of ED encounters. Using these physician-reported data, the demographics, patient complaints, physician diagnoses, and dispositions were compared by age group, i.e., young-old (age 65-84 years) vs old-old (age > or = 85 years).RESULTS:The elderly (age > or = 65 years) represented 5,038 (19.6%) of 25,646 ED encounters for all adults (age > or = 18 years). The geriatric age groups (ages 65-74, 75-84, and > or = 85 years) accounted for 45.3%, 37.4%, and 17.2% of all the encounters by the elderly. The proportions of female patients and white patients were higher with increasing age. The proportion of elderly patients hospitalized was 4 times that of younger adults and reflected monotonic increase with increasing age among elders. Patient complaints and physician diagnoses were generally similar for the young-old (65-84 years) and the old-old (> or = 85 years).CONCLUSIONS:These findings are consistent with previous single-center studies of geriatric ED patients. This data source may be useful for investigation of clinical issues related to the care of elderly ED patients.

OBJECTIVES1) To determine, for severely injured pediatric patients, which enabling factors and social situations are associated with the most severe and costly injuries; 2) to determine which subsets of patients are affected by particular enabling factors; and 3) to determine which enabling factors are associated with death.METHODSRetrospective chart review of patients included in a pediatric trauma registry at a level I trauma center, plus review of medical examiner reports for deaths declared at the scene for one year. Abstracted data included age, gender, enabling factors (e.g., abuse/assault, neglect, endangerment, and nonuse of safety measures), mechanisms of injury, Injury Severity Scale (ISS) score, length of stay, need for intensive care unit (ICU) care, and expense.RESULTSRecords were reviewed for 336 identified children. There was a 2:1 male-to-female ratio; 9.5% died, 3.5% at the scene. Active endangerment or neglect was associated with death (p = 0.0004). However, the nonuse of safety devices was more common and resulted in a higher absolute number of deaths. Similarly, while inadvertent gunshot wounds, intentional injury, and environmental mishaps were more commonly lethal, motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) were more common and claimed the most lives. Cost was highest for the patients aged 14-16 years, in part reflecting the larger number of MVCs.CONCLUSIONThe severity of pediatric trauma is largely influenced by the mechanism of injury. Our data highlight the importance of enabling factors for such injuries overall and as a function of age group (reflecting developmental status). While injury prevention education for caregivers is necessary, the incorporation of passive safety measures also is vital for decreasing injuries and their severity.

Study objective: To compare the analgesic efficacy and safety of IV ketorolac, the only nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug indicated for parenteral use in acute pain in the United States, with IV meperidine and with a combination of the two agents in renal colic.Methods: We carried out a double-blind, randomized, multicenter clinical trial in the emergency departments of four urban tertiary care teaching hospitals. Our study subjects were 154 patients with suspected renal colic. Each subject received an initial IV dose of ketorolac 60 mg, meperidine 50 mg, or both supplemented as needed beyond 30 minutes with additional doses of meperidine.Results: The main outcome measures were changes in pain-intensity and pain-relief scores, amount of supplemental meperidine required, end-of-study drug tolerability, and adverse events. Analyses of 106 subjects with confirmed renal colic indicated that ketorolac and the combination were significantly better than meperidine alone by all efficacy measures, including pain relief and time elapsed before the need for supplemental meperidine. By 30 minutes, 75% of the ketorolac group and 74% of the combination group had a 50% reduction in pain scores, compared with 23% of the meperidine group (P<.001). The ketorolac and combination groups did not differ significantly in any of the efficacy measures.Conclusion: IV ketorolac, alone or in combination with meperidine, was superior to IV meperidine alone in moderate and severe renal colic. Because many subjects in all three treatment groups received supplemental meperidine and because response to ketorolac alone cannot be predicted, clinicians may choose to initiate treatment with a ketorolac-meperidine combination.

STUDY OBJECTIVE:To compare the effects of water rinse with those of isopropyl alcohol, polyethylene glycol with industrial methylated spirits, or ethanol on cutaneous phenol burns.DESIGN:Controlled trial with all animals receiving all treatments applied to different cutaneous phenol burn sites.TYPE OF PARTICIPANTS:Swine weighing 9 to 18 kg.INTERVENTIONS:In phase 1, each burn site was treated with water rinse for zero, one, or five minutes combined with either isopropyl alcohol, polyethylene glycol with industrial methylated spirits, ethanol, or no other treatment. Biopsies of treatment sites were done at 30 minutes and at 48 hours. In phase 2, a pilot study, the effect of isopropyl alcohol, polyethylene glycol with industrial methylated spirits, or water treatment on serum phenol levels was noted in animals with 5%, 10%, and 15% body surface area burns.MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:In phase 1, on histological examination of biopsy specimens, significant differences in tissue damage occurred among the groups (P < .05). Isopropyl alcohol and polyethylene glycol with industrial methylated spirits were the most efficacious treatments; the duration of water rinse had no significant effect. In phase 2, the systemic absorption of phenol may be greater with water treatment than with isopropyl alcohol treatment.CONCLUSION:Isopropyl alcohol and polyethylene glycol with industrial methylated spirits are equally effective in the amelioration of phenol burns of less than 5% total surface area. The wider availability of isopropyl alcohol makes it potentially the most useful treatment for these small burns. Further studies of its risks are needed.

Excessive brain lactate, as may develop in cerebral ischemia, has been implicated as a major cause of irreversible cell damage. With an experimental model that produces cerebral ischemia by bilateral carotid ligation combined with systemic hypotension, previous studies have shown that treatment with 25 mg/kg sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) is effective in reducing brain lactate more quickly than no treatment at all. Because higher doses of DCA may be more effective, the main objective of our study was to examine the dose-response of brain tissue lactate to DCA. In addition, other metabolites that may be indirectly affected by this response (eg, glucose, glycogen, ATP, and phosphocreatine) also were measured. Adult male Wistar rats were assigned to experimental and treatment groups, and real or sham ischemia was induced as described in our previous article. After 30 minutes of reperfusion, rats were euthanized by in situ freezing of the brain. Cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum were analyzed bilaterally. There was no effect of DCA dose on glucose or glycogen. When compared with hippocampus, lactate was higher in the cerebral cortex after ischemia, and DCA was more effective in reducing those levels. This is evidence of a lower metabolic rate in hippocampus than in cortex. Cerebellum did not exhibit an increase in lactate; therefore, it can serve as an in situ tissue control for that metabolite. Significantly different levels of metabolites in one hemisphere of some DCA-treated ischemic rats appeared to reflect a dose effect of DCA on lactate and a significant change in ATP and phosphocreatine at the higher doses.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The standard of care for acute thromboembolic stroke is changing rapidly with the advent of new pharmacologic therapies. The deterioration of focal cerebral ischemia to infarction can be lessened with timely restoration of cerebral blood flow. As pharmacologic therapy of acute stroke evolves, emergency physicians will increasingly facilitate its implementation. The purpose of this study was to elucidate those factors significantly affecting the acute stroke patient's emergency department (ED) evaluation time. The pretreatment ED evaluations of 20 patients entered in an ongoing trial of a fibrinolytic agent (ancrod) for acute ischemic stroke were reviewed. Pretreatment screening factors included the assessment of hematologic status, concurrent illness, and potential neoplastic disease or cerebral hemorrhage as the etiology for the neurological deficit. The following factors had a statistically significant effect on pretreatment evaluation time (range, 2.6 to 11.4 hours) by multiple linear regression analysis: time from arrival until bleeding time completed (P less than .005), time from arrangement of computed head tomography until its completion (P less than .05), chosen site of treatment (ED v neurological step-down unit; P less than .005), order of patient entry (P less than .01), and time from arrival until completion of fibrinogen level assay (P less than .05). These results emphasize the need to coordinate and streamline the clinical evaluation process. The use of the ED as the site of treatment, abbreviating the time until pharmacologic therapy, has not been previously documented. Expedient completion of an evaluation compatible with safe pharmacologic therapy of acute ischemic stroke will dictate the time of definitive therapy. These results should assist other institutions considering rapid pharmacologic therapy for acute ischemic stroke.

In shock, the presence of hyperlactatemia is prognostic of a failure to survive. An experimental model of stroke that combines bilateral carotid ligation and bleeding to a mean arterial pressure of 50 mm Hg induces hyperlactatemia like that associated with tissue hypoperfusion of hemorrhagic shock. In previous nonsurvival studies with this model, post-ischemic treatment of fed rats with 25 mg/kg of sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) was effective in lowering brain tissue lactate but did not significantly affect the ischemia-induced increase in serum lactate measured after 30 minutes of ischemia followed by 30 minutes of reperfusion. Investigators using other animal models treated hyperlactatemia associated with tissue hypoperfusion successfully with a DCA dose of more than 25 mg/kg. Our goal was to determine the effect of a higher dose of DCA on serum lactate in the model of cerebral ischemia with systemic hypotension that we had used in previous studies. The previously unstudied dose-response also was evaluated in our study. Rats that had been fed ad libitum were assigned randomly to either a real or sham (control) ischemic group. Immediately after 30 minutes of ischemia and subsequent reinfusion of blood or after 30 minutes of sham ischemia, rats received DCA (0, 25, 50, 100, 200, or 300 mg/kg). Comparisons were made of blood values measured at the end of equilibration before ischemia, after 30 minutes of ischemia, and after 30 minutes of reperfusion. All ischemic rats were hyperlactatemic. Serum lactate levels were not correlated to blood glucose elevation during ischemia. After treatment in both control and ischemic rats, the percentage decrease in serum lactate varied as a logarithmic function of the DCA dose administered. Glucose levels and pH were not affected by DCA treatment at any dose. Because acidemia decreases lactate uptake by the liver, values for acidotic rats were compared with those for nonacidotic rats. Whereas lactate in acidotic rats decreased significantly only when treated with DCA, nonacidotic rats evidenced this decrease regardless of whether they received DCA. We discuss the relationship of these findings to the peak levels of lactate achieved, the resolution of hyperlactatemia, and factors that affect the interpretation of data in therapeutic studies using DCA.

Controversy exists as to whether ethanol intoxication causes exaggerated hypotension or increased mortality during hemorrhagic shock. Previous studies have used anesthetized animals. This limits data interpretation as anesthetic agents, particularly pentobarbital, have well-documented effects on hemodynamics and the response to hemorrhage. We studied the effects of moderate ethanol intoxication on blood pressure and survival time during fatal hemorrhagic shock in unanesthetized swine. Immature female swine weighing 15 to 20 kg were splenectomized and instrumented with chronic indwelling aortic catheters, right atrial catheters, and gastrostomy tubes. Four to seven days later the unanesthetized animals underwent hemorrhagic shock. Thirty minutes prior to the start of hemorrhage, the experimental group (n = 8) received 3 mL/kg of 100% ethanol mixed as a 1:3 solution with water through a gastrostomy tube. The control group (n = 8) received an equal amount of water. The distal aortic catheter was connected to a roller pump and blood was removed at a rate of 1 mL/kg/min until the animal died. Arterial pressure, heart rate, lactate ethanol and glucose levels, hematocrit, and arterial blood gases were measured in both groups at baseline and every 15 minutes thereafter. A mean ethanol level of 1,500 to 1,700 micrograms/mL was produced in the experimental group from baseline through 60 minutes. Data were analyzed using Student's two-tailed t test, and analysis of variance for repeated measures. There was no significant difference in survival time between the control (63.1 +/- 2.8 min) and ethanol (59.9 +/- 5.9 min) groups. Systolic blood pressure was significantly lower in the ethanol group after 15 minutes of hemorrhage (81 +/- 22 to 59 +/- 14 mm Hg, P less than .05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)