Sepsis is a common and life-threatening condition that requires early recognition and swift initial management. Diagnosis and treatment of sepsis and septic shock are fundamental for emergency clinicians, and include knowledge of clinical and laboratory indicators of subtle and overt organ dysfunction, infection source control, and protocols for prompt identification of the early signs of septic shock. This issue is a structured review of the literature on the management of sepsis, focusing on the current evidence, guidelines, and protocols.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs currently written, national regulatory guidance on procedural sedation has elements that are contradictory, confusing, and out of date. As a result, hospital procedural sedation policies are often widely inconsistent between institutions despite similar settings and resources, putting emergency department (ED) patients at risk by denying them uniform access to safe, effective, and appropriate procedural sedation care. Many hospitals have chosen to take overly conservative stances with respect to regulatory compliance to minimize their perceived risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Septic pulmonary embolism (SPE) is a rare disorder caused by metastasis of infectious thrombi to the lungs. Most commonly, this occurs as a result of infectious endocarditis. This clinical entity may easily be confused for more common and less mortal diagnoses such as pneumonia, bronchitis, or pulmonary embolism.
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