Irrigation in facial and scalp lacerations: does it alter outcome?

Study Objective: Animal and human studies suggest that irrigation lowers the infection rate in contaminated wounds, but there is no evidence that this common practice is beneficial for "clean" lacerations. We tested the null hypothesis that there is no difference in the infection rate for noncontaminated lacerations to the face and scalp that are irrigated before primary closure compared with similar wounds that are closed primarily without irrigation.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of consecutive patients presenting to a suburban, academic emergency department between October 1992 and August 1996.

Comparison of types of research articles published in emergency medicine and non-emergency medicine journals.

Introduction: As the specialty of emergency medicine (EM) matures, its journals should be publishing research of a quality similar to that which appears in other premier journals.

Objective: To compare the types of original research published in 4 EM vs 3 non-EM journals.

Methods: Retrospective review of all 1995 articles published in Academic Emergency Medicine, American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Journal of Emergency Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, and New England Journal of Medicine.

Comparison of patient satisfaction and practitioner satisfaction with wound appearance after traumatic wound repair.

Introduction: Existing cosmetic scales for wounds are based only on practitioners' evaluations. They have not been validated using the patient's assessment.

Objective: To validate a previously developed wound cosmesis scale by determining the relationship between patient and practitioner assessments of cosmetic outcome following traumatic wound repair.