Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

A Child with Constipation and Swollen Abdomen

Urgent message: Malignancies in children are often discovered only inadvertently, in conjunction with seemingly less dire presentations. Awareness of relevant signs and symptoms by the urgent care clinician can be invaluable in identifying tumors that might otherwise escape notice until they are at an advanced stage. Muhammad Waseem, MD Introduction The identification of a palpable abdominal mass in an urgent care center or emergency department is quite concerning, as it represents a serious underlying disorder. …

November 2009

Appendicitis Due to Squirrel Dinner

Introduction Appendicitis due to foreign bodies is a rare occurrence; most cases reported in the literature have occurred due to sharp objects such as pins, needles, toothpicks, and small nails. Solid foreign bodies – such as a bullet – rarely cause appendicitis. Appendicitis due to traumatic gunshot wounds has been described before, as have appendicitis cases due to ingested birdshot. Here, we describe an interesting case that demonstrates the importance of eliciting a history of …

June 2009

A Patient with Suspected Pulmonary Embolism

Urgent message: High degree of suspicion combined with thorough history and proper use of available tests can help the clinician identify patients in need of emergent referral. John Shufeldt, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP and Kelli Hickle Introduction A 47-year-old woman with a diagnosis of ovarian cancer developed an acute onset of mild shortness of breath two days after being discharged for a work-up of symptomatic ascites. Her medical history was significant for obesity and recent …

March 2009

January 2009

A 25-Year-Old Male Presenting with Tetanus

Urgent message: Unusual as the diagnosis may be in 2009, patients with symptoms of what is later confirmed to be tetanus may be more likely to present to urgent care than to other practice settings. Curtis G. Kommer, MD, Latha Shankar, MD, and Mario Kapetsonis, MD Tetanus, a toxin-mediated infection of gram-positive bacteria Clostridium tetani, is a rare presentation in the 21st century. Since 2000, there have been fewer than 50 cases per year reported …

Case Report