Emergency Medicine News

Young children who used 3 minutes of virtual reality while undergoing chest radiography experienced reduced anxiety and distress and shorter procedure times, according to findings from a prospective randomized clinical trial published in JAMA Pediatrics.

An intervention that included educating providers and families on guidelines for group A Streptococcus, or GAS, testing reduced the use of rapid streptococcal tests, or RSTs, by more than half among children aged younger than 3 years presenting to an urban ED, according to researchers.

Findings published in JAMA Network Open highlight a 140% increase in calls to poison control centers for pediatric and adolescent marijuana ingestions after the legalization of medical marijuana in Massachusetts.

Findings published in Pediatrics suggest that a child’s chance of survival in an emergency may depend on the hospital where they receive care.

Children frequently ingest foreign objects — particularly during the ages of 6 months to 3 years. Although about 80% to 90% of foreign bodies pass through the gastrointestinal tract spontaneously without difficulties, some may cause serious complications and require endoscopic or surgical removal depending on the type, size and shape of the object; its location in the gastrointestinal tract; and time since ingestion, according to a review published in Clinical Endoscopy.

Most pediatric in-flight medical events are resolved during the flight, according to findings from an observational retrospective review published in Annals of Emergency Medicine. Although few of these lead to aircraft diversion, one in six requires additional care after the flight.

In a general hospital pediatric unit, nurses did not respond to 67% of physiologic monitor alarms, frequently finding no further assessment or clinical intervention necessary, according to a study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

The last few weeks of summer can be an exceptionally difficult time to find an epinephrine auto-injector in some parts of the country, an allergist told Healio Primary Care.

A 5-year analysis in the United States revealed that states with stricter gun laws, including those that require universal background checks for gun purchases, have fewer pediatric firearm-related deaths.

According to a recent poll, one in four grandparents revealed that they keep their prescription medications in easy-to-open containers or pill boxes, raising the risk that their grandchildren will accidentally ingest or even divert the drugs.