Spontaneous Pneumothorax as a Complication of COVID-19 Pneumonia: A Case Report.

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. It typically presents with respiratory symptoms such as fevers, cough, and shortness of breath. As the number of cases increases, however, COVID-19 is being increasingly recognized as being associated with a variety of other respiratory pathologies.

Pitfalls and Pearls in Delusional Parasitosis.

Delusional parasitosis is an uncommon psychiatric disorder that manifests as having parasitic delusions. Due to its rarity, delusional parasitosis is a challenging and costly diagnosis of exclusion and proves difficult to manage for many providers. Although this syndrome is frequently discussed in psychiatric and dermatology reports, it is not commonly described in emergency medicine (EM) literature.

Increased access to urgent care centers decreases low acuity diagnoses in a nearby hospital emergency department.

Objective: We studied the impact four new urgent care centers (UCCs) had on a hospital emergency department (ED) in terms of overall census and proportion of low acuity diagnoses from 2009 to 2016. We hypothesized that low acuity medical problems frequently seen in UCCs would decrease in the ED population. Since Medicaid was not accepted at these UCCs, we also studied the Medicaid vs non-Medicaid discharged populations to see if there were some differences related to access to urgent care.

Mesenteric ischemia and protein S deficiency: a rare case report.

We present an unusual case of a 31-year-old nulliparous woman who was in her normal state of health until 3 weeks before her Emergency Department visit, when she began to have generalized abdominal pain that got acutely worse over a few days. She had a soft abdomen, but complained of excruciating pain. Her computed tomography (CT) scan revealed thrombosis in the superior mesenteric, splenic, and portal veins.

Cortical blindness, a rare complication of pre-eclampsia.

This is a case report of a previously undiagnosed pregnant teenager who presented to the emergency department with cortical blindness. She was found to be pre-eclamptic with the HELLP syndrome. She underwent immediate cesarean section, with delivery of a viable 32-week-old infant.

A survey of the emergency department population and their interest in preventive health education.

Objective: To determine which preventive health information the emergency department (ED) population (patients and visitors) would be most interested in having available to them while they spend time in the waiting area.

Methods: This was a prospective survey of consecutive adults seated in the ED waiting area during a representative week on predetermined shifts. The survey asked them to indicate whether they would be interested in obtaining information about the following preventive health issues: breast cancer, prostate cancer, smoking, obesity, stress reduction, exercise programs, alcohol/drugs, HIV, blood pressure screening, immunizations, referrals to primary care physicians, Pap smears, car safety, smoke detectors, domestic and youth violence, depression, gun safety, and safe sex.