Points & Pearls: Emergency department diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases

Sexually transmitted diseases are a growing threat to public health, but are often underrecognized, due to the often nonspecific (or absent) signs and symptoms, the myriad diseases, and the possibility of co-infection. Emergency clinicians play a critical role in improving healthcare outcomes for both patients and their partners. Optimizing the history and physical examination, ordering appropriate testing, and prescribing antimicrobial therapies, when required, will improve outcomes for men, women, and pregnant women and their babies. This issue reviews the latest evidence in the diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, focusing on efficient and safe strategies to optimize outcomes. [Points & Pearls is a digest of Emergency Medicine Practice.]

Points & Pearls: Blunt cardiac injury: emergency department diagnosis and management

Blunt cardiac injury describes a range of cardiac injury patterns resulting from blunt force trauma to the chest. Due to the multitude of potential anatomical injuries blunt force trauma can cause, the clinical manifestations may range from simple ectopic beats to fulminant cardiac failure and death. Because there is no definitive, gold-standard diagnostic test for cardiac injury, the emergency clinician must utilize an enhanced index of suspicion in the clinical setting combined with an evidence-based diagnostic testing approach in order to arrive at the diagnosis. This review focuses on the clinical cues, diagnostic testing, and clinical manifestations of blunt cardiac injury as well as best-practice management strategies. [Points & Pearls is a digest of Emergency Medicine Practice.]

Points & Pearls: Evaluation and management of life-threatening headaches in the emergency department

Headache is the fourth most common reason for emergency department encounters, accounting for 3% of all visits in the United States. Though troublesome, 90% are relatively benign primary headaches --migraine, tension, and cluster headaches. The other 10% are secondary headaches, caused by separate underlying processes, with vascular, infectious, or traumatic etiologies, and they are potentially life-threatening. This issue details the important pathophysiologic features of the most common types of life-threatening headaches, the key historical and physical examination information emergency clinicians must obtain, the red flags that cannot be missed, and the current evidence for best-practice testing, imaging, treatment, and disposition. [Points & Pearls is a digest of Emergency Medicine Practice.]

Points & Pearls: First trimester pregnancy emergencies: recognition and management

Timely management of patients presenting to the ED while in their first trimester of pregnancy can improve outcomes for both the patient and the fetus. Common obstetric problems encountered include vaginal bleeding and miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and pregnancy of undetermined location, and nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, including hyperemesis gravidarum. Optimal diagnostic approaches and management strategies are covered, including which antiemetics are safe to give in pregnancy. Common nonobstetric problems include asymptomatic bacteriuria, urinary tract infections including pyelonephritis, and acute appendicitis. This article also reviews the various imaging modalities available for pregnant patients and reviews the risks of ionizing radiation as well as various contrast media.[Points & Pearls is a digest of Emergency Medicine Practice.]

Points & Pearls: Electrical injuries in the emergency department: an evidence-based review

Electrical injuries can be caused by exposure to current from low-voltage and high-voltage sources as well as lightning strikes, and the circumstances of the exposure will dictate management strategies. Human tissues have varying resistance characteristics and susceptibility to damage, so injuries may be thermal, electrical, and/or mechanical, potentially causing burns, thrombosis, tetany, falls, and blast injury. This issue reviews the types of trauma seen with electrical injury and how body systems can be affected by occult or delayed effects, and the optimal evidence-based resuscitation and management strategies associated with each. [Points & Pearls is a digest of Emergency Medicine Practice.]

Points & Pearls: Updates and controversies in the early management of sepsis and septic shock

Sepsis is a common and life-threatening condition that requires early recognition and swift initial management. Diagnosis and treatment of sepsis and septic shock are fundamental for emergency clinicians, and include knowledge of clinical and laboratory indicators of subtle and overt organ dysfunction, infection source control, and protocols for prompt identification of the early signs of septic shock. [Points & Pearls is a digest of Emergency Medicine Practice.]