From ID Week: Outbreak-Related Hep A Infections Are on the Rise Key point: Hepatitis A infection may be evolving from common-source exposure to outbreak exposure. Urgent care clinicians can influence this phenomenon by recommending that at-risk adults receive immunization. Citation: Foster M, Hofmeister M, Yin S, et al. Changing epidemiology of hepatitis A virus infections—United States, 2009–2017. Oral Abstract Session. ID Week 2018. Available at: https://idsa.confex.com/idsa/2018/webprogram/Paper74176.html. Accessed October 8, 2018. Between 2007 and 2017, the …
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A 45-Year-Old Woman with Suddenly Discolored Skin
Case A 45-year-old woman presents with a complaint of “a brown spot” on her back. Upon examination, you confirm there is a reticular hyperpigmented patch of skin, which she says she noticed after using a heating pad to relieve myalgia after working in her garden. She confesses that she fell asleep with the heating pad on the area, she thinks for several hours. View the photo and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would …
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A 52-Year-Old Man Who Is Lightheaded and Dizzy
Case The patient is a 52-year-old man who presents to your urgent care center with lightheaded dizziness, which he says has been present for the past 3 days. It is worse with standing. He reports that he has been spending a lot of time in the sun lately. He denies chest pain, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, or paresthesias. He does not take any medications. His personal medical history untreated hypertension, and there …
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Syphilis in the Urgent Care Center
Urgent message: Seeking information beyond the stated history can prompt important information that informs the true diagnosis. This is especially true in patients with a complicated or potentially embarrassing history. Case Presentation A 59-year-old female with a past medical history of type 2 diabetes and hypertension presents to an urgent care facility with complaints of abdominal pain. She is well known to the urgent care staff. She is consistently noncompliant with medical care. Her hypertension …
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A 16-Year-Old with Severe Pain and Immobility After a Basketball Mishap
Case The patient is a high school athlete who is brought to your urgent care center with severe pain in the area of his right foot and ankle. He reports that he jumped for a rebound, landing hard on another player’s foot with his full weight on his right foot. View the images taken and consider what the diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is described on the next page. Figure …
Read MoreAbstracts In Urgent Care – October 2018
New Data Show ‘Steep and Sustained’ Increase in STD Occurrence—Especially Syphilis Key point: Over the past 5 years, rates of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia have all increased in the United States, with syphilis cases almost doubling and cases of antibiotic-reistant gonorrhea rising. Citation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2018 STD Prevention Conference. New CDC Analysis Shows Steep and Sustained Increases in STDs. August 28, 2018. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/2018/2018-std-prevention-conference.html#Graphics. Accessed September 7, 2018. Every other …
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A 62-Year-Old Woman with Palpitations
Case The patient is a 62-year-old woman who presents to your urgent care center with a feeling of palpitations, which began the previous evening. She has no chest pain or shortness of breath, but does feel “clammy.” She takes no medications. Her history includes MI and CABG 5 years ago. Upon exam, you find: General: Alert and oriented X 3, skin color good but clammy Lungs: CTAB Cardiovascular: Tachycardic and regular without murmur, …
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A 32-Year-Old Male with Unsteady Gait
Urgent message: Early diagnosis and management of multiple sclerosis are crucial for long-term prognosis. Urgent care providers must be vigilant with proper history taking and thorough physical examination when looking for signs and symptoms of early MS. Waqas Memon, MD, Zonaira Shabbir, OMS IV, and Muhammad Akhtar, MD, FACP Introduction In the early course of multiple sclerosis (MS), the initial symptoms are nonspecific and intermittent, which makes the diagnosis challenging.1 Focusing on common symptoms and …
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A 72-Year-Old Man with Black Skin Lesions
Case A 72-year-old man brought his wife into the urgent care center because she woke up with a raw throat and fever. However, he also asks to see a clinician to ask about multiple black skin lesions on his cheeks and eyelids. Once in the exam room, he notes that he spent more than 40 years in the landscaping business, getting considerable sun exposure. He knows that put him at risk for skin cancer. In …
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Employing the Parental Papoose Technique in Treating Young Children
Urgent message: Children presenting to the urgent care center are often in a state of distress and agitation—to the extent that they may be difficult to treat when it comes to certain procedures. The parental papoose technique may help soothe the patient—and the parent—making effective treatment more accessible. Oscar D. Almeida, Jr., MD, FACOG, FACS It is common for a young child to enter our urgent care center calmly—while being held by a parent, only …
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