BACKGROUND The role of urgent colonoscopy in lower gastro-intestinal bleeding (LGIB) remains controversial. Over the last two decades, a number of studies have indicated that urgent colonoscopy may facilitate the identification and treatment of bleeding lesions; however, studies comparing this approach to elective colonoscopy for LGIB are limited. AIMS To determine the utility and assess the ...

Urgent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has a higher mortality rate than elective CABG. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of urgent CABG. From July 1992 to May 2005, 104 patients underwent urgent CABG. All patients required an urgent surgical revascularization within 24 hr of diagnostic coronary angiography. In-hospital mortality after urgent CABG was 17.3% (1...

OBJECTIVE To assess hospitalisation rate as a proxy for the ability of the Manchester Triage System (MTS) to identify less urgent paediatric patients. We also evaluated general practitioner (GP) services to determine if they met patients' needs compared to emergency department care. METHODS Self-referred children triaged as less urgent by the MTS in two emergency departments in the Netherland...

gastrointestinal (gi) and hepatic manifestations are not uncommon in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (sle). they include nonspecific symptoms as well as serious, life-threatening complications necessitating urgent, aggressive therapy. in addition to direct involvement of the gi system by the disease, many drug-induced side effects and opportunistic infections have gi and hepatic mani...

OBJECTIVES To study the morbidity patterns of non-urgent patients utilising accident and emergency services and compare these patients with 'true' accident and emergency cases. To analyse the morbidity pattern of non-urgent cases over different time periods, and across different age groups. DESIGN A cross-sectional study completed over a 1-year period. SETTING Four accident and emergency de...

Despite the release of a national report describing key markers of emergency department (ED) overcrowding, limited linear data using these markers have been published. We sought to report the degree and trends of ED overcrowding in a typical academic hospital and to highlight some of the key markers of ED patient flow and care. We conducted a prospective study in a large Canadian urban tertiary...

We conducted a study to evaluate the impact of the exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) on perioperative outcome in Crohn's disease (CD) patients following immunosuppressive therapy. Patients with CD followed at a referral center between January 2001 and March 2014 who underwent abdominal surgery were identified. Patients were divided into 4 groups: patients not exposed to immunosuppressive agents...