Difficult Intravenous Access Requiring Ultrasound in the Emergency Department: Associations With Delays in Care and Areas for Quality Improvement.

Background Patients with difficult intravenous access (DIVA) requiring ultrasound-guided intravenous (USGIV) access have been associated with delays in treatment, imaging, and disposition in academic emergency department (ED) patient populations. Our objective in this study was to characterize differences in time to intravenous access, imaging, and disposition between patients with DIVA versus those without DIVA requiring USGIV access in a community ED while also assessing for DIVA-associated comorbidities. Methods A cross-sectional, observational analysis was performed on admitted ED patients evaluated from September 2 to September 31, 2022, at a community ED. Patients with DIVA were defined as patients with two failed attempts at traditional intravenous placement. These patients require USGIV placement per institutional protocol. Patients younger than 18 years of age, trauma admissions, repeated visits from the same patient, patients with missing data, and direct hospital admissions were excluded. Continuous variables were recorded with medians and included ED throughput measures of time to vascular access, contrast CT imaging, and disposition. Differences in median times between DIVA patients versus non-DIVA patients were assessed with the Mann-Whitney U-test. Categorical data involving comorbidities were reported as percentages, and differences in proportions between DIVA versus non-DIVA patients were assessed via chi-square tests. Multivariate logistic regression analysis evaluated for correlations between DIVA and times to access, contrast CT imaging, disposition, and significant covariates while adjusting for demographic information. Results A total of 1250 patients were included in this investigation (5.8% associated with DIVA requiring USGIV access). The median age of all subjects was 69 (interquartile range = 58, 79) with no significant difference between the DIVA and non-DIVA groups. Patients with DIVA were more likely to be female in comparison to patients without DIVA (65.3% and 51.2%, respectively, p < 0.05). Patients with a history of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (p < 0.001), intravenous drug use (IVDU) (p < 0.001), and venous thromboembolism (p < 0.05) had statistically significant associations with DIVA. On regression analysis, patients with DIVA were more likely to have a history of ESRD with an odds ratio (OR) of 3.56 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.62-7.81) and a history of IVDU with an OR of 14.29 (95% CI: 5.17-39.54). Patients with DIVA were associated with statistically significant greater median times to vascular access, contrast CT imaging, and disposition (p < 0.001 for time to access and disposition and p < 0.01 for time to contrast CT imaging). Conclusion In this study, DIVA cases requiring USGIV access were positively associated with significantly longer times to access, contrast CT imaging, and disposition compared to patients without DIVA at our community ED. Comorbidities such as IVDU and ESRD had statistically significant associations with DIVA requiring USGIV access.

Emergency Department Point-of-Care Ultrasound Diagnosis of a Large Bowel Obstruction Due to Metastatic Rectal Cancer: A Case Report.

Large bowel obstruction (LBO) is a life-threatening condition seen most often in the geriatric population. LBO can present with nonspecific abdominal pain that can overlap with other pathologies, such as abdominal infection, acute aortic disease, intestinal perforation, and atypical acute coronary syndrome in the geriatric population. Delays in diagnosis of colonic obstruction result in significant mortality due to complications involving bowel necrosis, perforation, and sepsis. In the emergency department (ED), abdominal point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) can diagnose LBO and facilitate the assessment of the wide differential inherent to elderly abdominal pain. The authors report a rare ED application of abdominal POCUS to facilitate rapid diagnosis of an LBO secondary to rectal cancer.

Penetrating Aortic Ulceration With Pseudoaneurysm and Intramural Hematoma: Emergency Department Management and Point-of-Care Ultrasound Diagnosis.

Penetrating aortic ulcer (PAU) complicated by an intramural hematoma is a rare and potentially life-threatening emergency department (ED) presentation that is defined by progressive ulceration through the intima layer into the media layer of the aorta. Symptomatic PAUs can be clinically indistinguishable from other life-threatening pathologies such as aortic dissection, acute coronary syndrome (ACS), intrabdominal catastrophes as well as less lethal processes such as musculoskeletal back pain. Given the potential of PAUs to result in lethal aortic rupture and dissection, the emergency provider should maintain a high index of suspicion in patients with risk factors for aortic pathologies and utilize diagnostic modalities such as point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) to expedite diagnosis.

Abnormal Bedside Ultrasound Findings in a Complex Patient With Kawasaki Disease.

We herein report a case of an 18-year-old female with Kawasaki disease who presented to the emergency department with epigastric abdominal pain and was subsequently found to have free fluid present in her abdomen visualized on bedside Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) exam. Kawasaki disease is an acute vasculitis syndrome that primarily affects children and can have serious complications such as coronary artery aneurysms. The use of ultrasound in emergency departments is rapidly increasing, with the FAST being one of the most commonly performed bedside ultrasound examinations. FAST exams are most commonly performed in trauma patients as well as being part of the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) protocol. However, this case demonstrated that the FAST exam can also have application in other clinical scenarios and patient presentations where there is clinical suspicion of free intra-abdominal fluid.