Emergency Medicine News

A recent NIH study showed that teenagers increase their risk for crashing sevenfold by reaching for objects while driving. The study also found that teenagers who manually use their phone to dial, text or browse the web while driving doubled their crash risk.

Pediatric team leaders who were blindfolded during resuscitation scenarios improved their leaderships skills by 11%, compared with a 5% improvement in the leaders who were not blindfolded, according to research published in Frontiers in Pediatrics.

Teens who incorporated light aerobic activity into their concussion treatment plans recovered more quickly than those who did not exercise, according to results of a randomized clinical trial published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Nearly 7 million antibiotic prescriptions are made for children every year in both pediatric and nonpediatric EDs throughout the United States. According to research published in Pediatrics, children who presented to nonpediatric EDs were more likely to receive prescriptions for conditions for which antibiotics were not indicated and were more likely to receive broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Nearly 9,000 children and adolescents died as a result of prescription and illicit opioid poisonings between 1999 and 2016 in the United States, according to findings published in JAMA Network Open. Most of these deaths occurred in teenagers, who saw an increase in heroin-related mortality of more than 400% during that time.

Neurologic manifestations of influenza, including seizures and encephalopathy, occurred in nearly 20% of children presenting to a Colorado hospital during the 2016-2016 season, according to research published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. Most of these children were infected with influenza A(H3N2), and they were 10 times more likely to require hospitalization, researchers wrote.

Clinicians can more accurately identify children with cellulitis who need IV antibiotic administration using a score that includes the child’s systemic features, swelling, eye involvement, tenderness, and whether the condition affects 1% or more of the child’s body, according to research published in Pediatrics.

Nearly 25% of parents who drink alcohol during special occasions do not limit their consumption or consider how their drinking affects the care of their child the next day, according to nationally representative poll results published by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

Although less than 2% of all deaths in the United States in 2016 were in children and adolescents, six of the 10 of the leading causes of death in this age group were caused by intentional and unintentional injuries, according to research published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Probiotics did not provide beneficial effects in children with gastroenteritis in EDs in the United States and Canada, according to a pair of studies recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine.