Trauma team activation criteria as predictors of patient disposition from the emergency department.

Unlabelled: Many trauma centers use mainly physiologic, first-tier criteria and mechanism-related, second-tier criteria to determine whether and at what level to activate a multidisciplinary trauma team in response to an out-of-hospital call. Some of these criteria result in a large number of unnecessary team activations while identifying only a few additional patients who require immediate operative intervention.

Objectives: To separately evaluate the incremental predictive value of individual first-tier and second-tier trauma team activation criteria for severe injury as reflected by patient disposition from the emergency department (ED).

The effects of the FDA warning on the use of droperidol by u.s. Emergency physicians.

Objectives: To determine if emergency physicians' (EP) use of droperidol has changed since the United States Food and Drag Administration (FDA) warning of December 2001 concerning QT interval prolongation, torsade de pointes, and sudden death; and to query EP opinions regarding droperidol before and after the FDA warning and regarding potential alternative drugs.

Methods: An internet-based survey was designed with questions regarding droperidol use in the emergency department (ED). Data collected included EP demographics, use of droperidol before and after the FDA warning, use of alternative drugs, and incidence of arrhythmias.