PCT-guided therapy was non-inferior in terms of safety, but did not reduce prescription of antibiotic regimens in an ED population with fever. In this heterogeneous population, the accuracy of PCT in diagnosing bacterial infections was poor. TRIAL REGISTRATION IN NETHERLANDS TRIAL REGISTER: http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=4949.

The (registration of) current pain management in trauma patients in the chain of emergency care varies widely between healthcare organisation, and deviates from national guideline recommendations. Although guideline compliance differs across groups of healthcare professionals, maximum compliance rate with indicators registered is 52%. In order to improve pain management and evaluate its effectiveness, we recommend to improve pain registration in patient files. Furthermore, we advise to identify barriers and facilitators related to the implementation of the national guideline in all emergency care organisations.

This review focuses on frequent users (FUs) of the emergency department (ED). Elucidation of the characteristics of frequent ED users will help to improve healthcare services. A systematic review of the literature (from 1999 onwards) on frequent ED users in non-US hospitals was performed. Twenty-two studies were included. FUs are responsible for a wide variety of 1-31% of ED visits depending on the FU definition used. They have a mean age between 40 and 50 years and are older than nonfrequent users. Chronic physical and mental diseases seem to be the main reasons for frequent ED visits. In terms of social characteristics, lacking a partner is more frequently reported among FUs in some studies. The absence of a universal definition for FUs complicates the determination of the burden on emergency healthcare services. FUs are a heterogeneous group of patients with genuine medical needs and high consumption of other healthcare services.

BackgroundIn many countries, including the Netherlands, a substantial number of patients visit the Emergency Department (ED) without a referral by a general practitioner. The goal of this study was to determine the characteristics and motivations of self-referred patients (SRPs) at the ED. The secondary objective was to explore SRPs’ opinion about copayments.MethodsA survey, in seven different languages was performed among SRPs from October 2011 until January 2012 at an academic ED in the Netherlands. Patients were included on 21 day-, 21 evening-, and 21 nightshifts during week and weekend days equally. Patient characteristics, motivations, complaints, diagnosis, and the opinion regarding copayments were examined.ResultsA total of 436 SRPs were included (response rate 82%). Forty-seven percent of the ED population was self-referred. SRPs were mainly male (58%), between 18 and 35 years (54%), Dutch (67%), single without children (42%), and low-educated (73%). The most commonly presented complaints were of musculoskeletal origin (35%). Expected need for additional medical care (e.g., X-rays, blood tests) was the reason to visit the ED for 28% of the SRPs. Around 30% of the SRPs were not prepared to pay for an ED visit. Fifty percent of SRPs were prepared to pay up to 25 or 50 EUR. Highly educated patients were willing to pay more than patients with a low level of education (p < 0.05).ConclusionsSRPs (47% of the total ED population) are often young men with musculoskeletal complaints. They are convinced that additional medical tests are necessary. About 70% of the SRPs are willing to make a copayment, half of the SRPs with a maximum between 25 EUR and 50 EUR. As highly educated SRPs are prepared to pay more, introducing copayments might influence equity in health care accessibility.

The objective was to present our experience in the brochoscopic removal of foreign bodies in children. This was carried out through a retrospective analysis of the medical records of 96 patients in whom endoscopic removal of an inhaled foreign body was required, at the department of paediatric otorhinolaryngology, Eramus Medical Centre, Rotterdam. The participants were all children who underwent bronchoscopy after suspected foreign body aspiration from 1990 to 2000. The main outcome measures were confirmed diagnosis of foreign body aspiration and localization of aspirated foreign body. It was seen that in children up to 3 years of age, there was no significant difference in foreign body distribution and in children aged 3 and older foreign bodies were more commonly found in the right main bronchus. It was concluded that aspirated foreign bodies are equally distributed between the left and right main bronchus in children younger than 3 years. This could be explained by the handling of choking infants by their parents.

Inter-hospital transfer is an important cause of delay in the delivery of IAT and every effort should be made to avoid transfers and reduce transfer-related delay. Furthermore, in-hospital workflow should be optimized to improve functional outcome after IAT.

BackgroundPatients with traumatic wounds frequently present to the ED. Literature on whether to treat these wounds sterile or non-sterile is sparse. Non-sterile treatment has the advantage of saving resources and costs, and could be of value in health settings where sterile materials are not readily available. Our objective was to compare the rate of wound infection after suturing traumatic lacerations with non-sterile gloves and dressings versus sterile gloves, dressings and drapes in the ED. We hypothesised that non-sterile gloves and dressings would be non-inferior to sterile gloves, dressings and drapes. The non-inferiority margin was set at 2%.MethodsA multicentre single-blinded randomised controlled trial testing for non-inferiority of non-sterile gloves and dressings versus sterile gloves, dressings and drapes for suturing of traumatic wounds was performed in 3 EDs in The Netherlands. Adults with uncomplicated wounds were included from July 2012 to December 2016. At the time of treatment, patient and wound characteristics and management were documented. The outcome was wound infection, which was identified during follow-up in the treating ED at 5–14 days postprocedure.ResultsFrom 2468 eligible patients, 1480 were randomised in a sterile (n=747) or non-sterile (n=733) protocol. Baseline characteristics were similar in both study arms. The observed wound infection rate in the non-sterile group was 5.7% (95% CI 4.0% to 7.5%) vs 6.8% (95% CI 5.1% to 8.8%) in the sterile group. The mean difference of the wound infection rate of the two groups was −1.1% (95% CI −3.7% to 1.5%).ConclusionAlthough recruitment ceased prior to reaching our planned sample size, the findings suggest that there is unlikely to be a large difference between the non-sterile gloves and dressings for suturing of traumatic wounds and sterile gloves, dressings and drapes for suturing of traumatic wounds in the ED.Trial registration numberNL 34798.078.11, NTR3541.

Objectives: The aim was to effectively reduce the unnecessary use of broad spectrum antibiotics in the emergency department (ED), patients with bacterial infections need to be identified accurately. We investigated the diagnostic value of a combination of biomarkers for bacterial infections, C-reactive protein (CRP), and procalcitonin (PCT), together with biomarkers for viral infections, tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), and interferon-gamma-induced protein-10 (IP-10), in identifying suspected and confirmed bacterial infections in a general ED population with fever. Methods: This is a sub-study in the HiTEMP cohort. Patients with fever were included during ED triage, and blood samples were obtained. Using both diagnostics and expert panel analysis, all patients were classified as having either suspected or confirmed bacterial infections, or non-bacterial disease. Using multivariable logistic regression analysis, three biomarker models were analysed: model 1, CRP, TRAIL, IP-10; model 2, PCT, TRAIL, IP-10; and model 3, CRP, PCT, TRAIL, IP-10. Results: A total of 315 patients were included, of whom 228 patients had a suspected or confirmed bacterial infection. The areas under the curve for the combined models were the following: model 1, 0.730 (95% CI 0.665e0.795); model 2, 0.748 (95% CI 0.685e0.811); and model 3, 0.767(95% CI 0.704 e0.829). Conclusions: These findings show that a combination of CRP, PCT, TRAIL and IP-10 can identify bacterial infections with higher accuracy than single biomarkers and combinations of a single bacterial biomarkers combined with TRAIL and IP-10. Y. van der Does,