Intravenous drug abuse and the accident and emergency department.

Intravenous drug abuse and the accident and emergency department.

A 4-month prospective study of intravenous drug abusers attending an accident and emergency department was performed. A total of 92 patients presented with 104 new complaints. Seventy-eight per cent of patients were under 30 years of age and 28% were female. The primary reason for attendance was related to trauma in 30% of attendances, accidental or deliberate overdose in 26% and as a result of...

Intravenous drug abuse and the accident and emergency department: AIDS (HTLV-III) antibodies and hepatitis B markers.

Intravenous drug abusers attending an inner city accident and emergency department.

In a 3-month prospective study, intravenous drug abusers represented 1.14% of all new attendances at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. They generated a significant workload and were often difficult to identify. A very high proportion required surgery or other invasive procedures. The clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the patients were often unexpected. The risks to staff and other implicat...

Violence in the Accident and Emergency Department.

Crimes of violence are recorded increasingly frequently, including those involving health professionals. We reviewed records of violent incidents kept for a major Accident and Emergency Department over a ten-year period. Details were recorded in a Violent Incident Book by all grades of A/E staff, and separate records were kept by hospital security officers. A total of 407 incidents were recorde...

Audit in the accident and emergency department.

Audit is all about improving patient care. Most clinicians are now familiar with the fundamentals of the audit loop, and the question "what do you understand by clinical audit?" can be relied on to appear in specialist registrar and consultant interviews. At its most simple the auditing process involves a critical appraisal of present performance, followed by a process of standard setting. Pres...