Purpose: Assessment of ultrasound use for peripheral intravenous cannulation among acute care nurses and physicians.
Methods: Over a population of 17,437, the calculated sample size of respondents required was 376.
Results: A total of 388 health professionals; 249 (64.
: Acquired hemophilia A (AHA) is a rare bleeding disorder caused by the development of autoantibodies against clotting factor VIII. Although the cause of this disorder remains obscure, it is often linked to malignancies, drug administration, autoimmune diseases and pregnancy. In pregnancy-associated AHA, hemorrhagic symptoms usually present 1-4 months peripartum, however they may occur up to 1-year postpartum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFErgotamine toxicity has become a rare condition which can be caused by, among others, drug-drug interaction. In this work we report a case with vasospastic ischemia induced by the wrongful combination of ergotamine with recently started Antiretroviral Therapy. Clinicians were not aware that patient was self-medicating for years with medication containing ergotamine and caffeine for migraines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA patient presenting with fever and purpura after a stay in the tropics tempts a physician to make a differential diagnosis mainly focusing on imported diseases. Although the importance of considering a tropical disease is obvious, the fact that cosmopolitan infections account for one third of the cases in a febrile returning traveler must not be overseen. Toxic Shock Syndrome is amongst the most notorious diseases due to the high mortality when inappropriately managed and the association with necrotizing fasciitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: An international task force recently redefined the concept of sepsis. This task force recommended the use of the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score instead of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria to identify patients at high risk of mortality. However, these new criteria have not been prospectively validated in some settings, and their added value in the emergency department remains unknown.
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