Best Practices In The Emergency Department Management Of Children With Special Needs.

Children with special needs have a wide variety of physical and developmental challenges. These children often have medical devices, subtle presentations, and behavioral or psychiatric issues that demand consideration when delivering emergency care. Some of the more common issues include the evaluation and management of complications in devices such a gastrostomy/jejunostomy feeding tubes, cerebroventricular shunts, and tracheostomy tubes, as well as impediments to the performance of common emergency procedures (eg, laceration repair, sedation for imaging) on children with developmental or behavioral disorders. This review will examine each of these circumstances and provide guidance on the best approaches to managing these patients.