Mental health-related presentations to a tertiary emergency department during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused significant mental distress in populations globally. At the frontline of the pandemic, emergency departments (EDs) are the prime setting to observe the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of the population. We aimed to describe the trend of mental health-related ED attendances at an acute hospital in Singapore before and during the various stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reducing blood sample hemolysis in the emergency department using S-Monovette® in aspiration mode.

Background: Blood sample hemolysis continues to be a significant problem in clinical practice. hemolysis rates up to 77% have been reported in literature. The use of manual aspiration techniques for blood sampling has previously been shown to reduce the burden of erythrocyte injury in the pre-analytical phase compared to the vacuum collection technique.

Renal Colic: A Red Herring for Mucocele of the Appendiceal Stump.

Flank pain with hematuria is a common presentation in the emergency department. The commonest differential diagnosis of these patients is renal/ureteric calculus or pyelonephritis. These patients are usually treated with analgesia, antibiotics in case of pyelonephritis, and are discharged with an outpatient referral to a urologist.