A 65-year-old female without any significant past medical history presented to the emergency department with left eye pain and redness. She also reported a developing rash to left side of her face over the last 24 hours.
A 25 year old male with a history of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) after an allogeneic stem cell transplant, which has been in remission for 6 years. He presents with a headache and rash. 4 days ago the patient noticed a rash on the abdomen that was itchy, but not painful. Today, he noticed a similar rash on his face.
The headache started yesterday, waking him up from sleep. It is now slowly getting worse. He endorses chills, nausea, neck stiffness, neck pain, myalgias, and photophobia. He denies fevers, vomiting and phonophobia. He does have small headaches regularly but this headache is one of the most painful of his life. He does not take any immunosuppressants or medications.
A 50-year-old female with a history of bipolar disorder, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and alcoholism presented to the ED after her family found her at home agitated, restless, and with a “large black burn” on her face. Her husband reported that she had been “picking” at this area of her face earlier in the day; at that time it appeared only slightly red. Per her husband, the patient had also felt “bugs crawling on her legs” and had been picking at and grabbing her legs on the day of presentation.
The child with a fever and rash in your Emergency Department (ED) may actually have measles. This year, there have been 1,182 cases of measles in the U.S., and counting. This is the highest rate in the past 27 years [1]. Globally, measles kills over a hundred thousand children [2]. In the U.S., one child dies for about every 1,000 cases [3]. Emergency providers must be able to quickly detect short-term complications that can lead to death and distinguish measles from mimics like Kawasaki Disease. It’s no coincidence that this year’s outbreak is in the setting of lower vaccination rates. The CDC now has new vaccine recommendations, and it’s imperative that ED providers join forces with public health providers to prevent future measles cases and deaths (photo credit).
(more…)
A 31 year old African-American male, with a history of HIV, non-compliant with medications, presents with 3 months of painful “balls and bumps” on his left thigh. He was evaluated at another hospital prior to this visit and was discharged with 7 days of TMP-SMX. He denies any fever, chills, weight loss, night sweats, or anorexia.
Amoxicillin is a penicillin derivative antibiotic against susceptible gram positive and gram negative bacteria. It has reasonable coverage for most upper respiratory infections and is used as prophylaxis for asplenia and bacterial endocarditis. This post aims to demystify amoxicillin treatment for common pediatric infections.
(more…)
History of present illness: A 46 year-old female with a past history of fibromyalgia, irritable bowel disease, and chronic abdominal pain presented to the emergency department with abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. She reported a one-year history of similar symptoms but states that her symptoms are worse today than usual, and not improved by her home hydrocodone, medical marijuana, or heating pad use – all of which she uses daily. She has not been able to tolerate oral intake today, vomiting up her breakfast of plain toast.
The patient was observed using her home heating pad in the emergency department.
