Abdominal pain in female patients can pose a diagnostic challenge to emergency physicians. There are a number of emergent clinical conditions that must be recognized in a timely fashion to reduce morbidity and mortality in these patients.
Trauma is the leading cause of death in patients between the ages of 1 and 44 years and is the fifth leading cause of overall deaths in the United States.
Patients with chronic pain can be some of the most difficult patients to deal with. They are often miserable and demanding, and their quest for pain relief can lead to addiction.
The authors of this issue discuss three types of drug-resistant bacteria that can colonize or infect emergency department patients. Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and, to a lesser extent, vancomycin-resistant enterococci are known to most emergency physicians.
