Peter B. Richman

The etiology of cardiac arrest in children and young adults: special considerations for ED management.

Children and young adults rarely present to the emergency department (ED) in cardiac arrest. This review examines published series on nontraumatic, cardiac arrest for patients aged 1 to 45 years and discusses the differential diagnosis for cardiovascular collapse. Among the most common entities encountered are cardiac diseases (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, myocarditis), airway diseases (pneumonia, epiglottitis, and asthma), epilepsy, hemorrhage (gastrointestinal bleeding, ectopic pregnancy), and drug toxicity (tricyclic antidepressants, cocaine). ED management of children and young adults in cardiac arrest requires an understanding of the heterogeneous pathophysiologic mechanisms and etiologies leading to cardiopulmonary dysfunction in these patients. The emergency physician should give particular focus to airway management for toddlers and preadolescents, because respiratory diseases predominate. When treating an adolescent or young adult, the resuscitation team should also consider toxic causes as well as occult hemorrhage. Management considerations unique to this patient population are discussed.

Droperidol for acute migraine headache

The use of intramuscular droperidol to treat acute migraine headache has not been previously reported in the emergency medicine literature. It is a promising therapy for migraine. The authors performed a pilot review of all patients receiving droperidol for migraine in our emergency department (ED) to evaluate its efficacy. We used a retrospective case series, in a suburban ED with an annual patient census of 48,000. All patients with a discharge diagnosis of migraine headache who were treated with i.m. droperidol during a consecutive 5-month period in our ED were identified. All patients received droperidol 2.5 mg intramuscular. As per ED protocol, their clinical progress was closely followed and documented at 30 minutes after drug administration (t30). Demographic and clinical variables were recorded on a standardized, closed-question, data collection instrument. The primary outcome measurement was relief of symptoms at t30 to the point that the patient felt well enough to go home without further ED intervention (symptomatic relief). Thirty-seven patients were treated (84% female), with an ED diagnosis of acute migraine with droperidol during the study period. The mean age was 36 +/- 12 years. Analgesics had been used within 24 hours before ED presentation by 62% of patients. At t30, 30 (81%) patients had symptomatic relief, 2 (5%) felt partial relief but required rescue medication, and 5 (14%) had no relief of symptoms. Drowsiness (14%) and mild akathisia (8%) were the only adverse reactions observed following drug administration. Droperidol 2.5 mg intramuscular may be a safe and effective therapy for the ED management of acute migraine headache. Randomized, controlled trials are warranted to further validate the findings of this preliminary study.

The effectiveness of ice as a topical anesthetic for the insertion of intravenous catheters.

In a paired clinical trial, the effectiveness of ice in reducing the pain of intravenous catheter placement was assessed in 28 adult volunteers. An ice pack was placed over one arm for 10 minutes, followed by insertion of an 18-gauge angiocatheter in both arms. Patients recorded their pain assessment after each venipuncture on a previously validated 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS) and identified their preferred method for the procedure (pretreatment with ice or no pretreatment). The mean pain score for catheter placement on arms pretreated with ice was 27.5+/-15.9 mm; the mean pain score for the control arms was 34.2+/-21.6 mm (P = .17). Most patients (61%) preferred no pretreatment (P = .014). Although most men (75%) preferred no pretreatment, 75% of women preferred pretreatment with ice (P = .014). Future studies should examine whether ice is effective at reducing pain from other more painful procedures and whether the response to ice is gender-related.