[Management of suspected meningitis in the emergency department].

Febrile meningeal syndrome is a medical emergency. Lumbar puncture keeps its gold-standard status as clinical findings are neither sensitive nor specific enough. Antibiotics and steroids are ideally administered within the first 30 minutes after admission when bacterial meningitis is suspected.

Geographical variation in surveillance strategies after curative-intent surgery for upper aerodigestive tract cancer.

Background: Analysis of geographical variation in utilization of medical resources is often used to identify regions of overutilization or underutilization.

Methods: We surveyed the membership of the American Head and Neck Society regarding their recommended frequency of office visits and 13 imaging studies and blood tests for their patients after potentially curative therapy for upper aerodigestive tract cancers.

Results: Of the 1322 members surveyed, 610 (46%) responded: 420 responses (32%) were assessable.

Surgical decision making in upper aerodigestive tract cancer patient follow-up.

The objective was to analyze the impact of clinical beliefs on surgical decision making in the posttreatment follow-up of patients with upper aerodigestive tract cancer. Clinical beliefs, defined as perceived benefits and risks of surveillance, were examined. All 824 members of the Society of Head and Neck Surgeons (SHNS) and 522 members of the American Society for Head and Neck Surgery, who were not SHNS members, were surveyed using TNM stage-specific clinical vignettes to measure surgical decision making in the posttreatment follow-up of patients with upper aerodigestive tract cancer.