Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Consider What Else Might Be Going on with Sunburn Patients

Patients who seek care for sunburn in emergency rooms and urgent care centers often have complicating concerns—some of which have little directly to do with the sunburn, according to a new report published in JAMA Dermatology. Psychiatric illness (9.3% of cases), alcohol use (6.4%), and homelessness (6.4%) were among the more common, according to researchers from Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and associated urgent care clinics. More closely linked with sunburn were blistering …

‘Take Two Aspirin and Call Me in the Morning’ Doesn’t Cut It for Back Pain

There’s no shortage of patients reporting to urgent care centers with back pain being their chief complaint. A new study published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases confirms they’re not likely to get satisfactory relief from nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), though. Machado, et al looked at 35 randomized, placebo-controlled trials that compared the efficacy and safety of NSAIDs with placebo for spinal pain. They found that treatment effects met the threshold for clinical importance in …

Abstracts in Urgent Care: May, 2013

Ondansetron Safe During Pregnancy Key point: No significant association between the antiemetic on- dansetron and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Citation: Pasternak B, Svanstrom H, Hviid A. Ondansetron in pregnancy and risk of adverse fetal outcomes. N Engl J Med 2013;368:814-823. In this retrospective cohort study, ondansetron had been prescribed for nausea and vomiting in almost 2000 of some 600,000 pregnancies. Ondansetron users were no more likely than nonusers to experience spontaneous abortion or stillbirth, or to …

Acute Pain Management in Urgent Care Medicine

Urgent message: Urgent care practitioners are called upon daily to alleviate pain. A thorough understanding of the various pain syndromes and the pharmacology and analgesic potencies of various medications will aid in their safe and appropriate use. Marc R. Salzberg, MD, FACEP and Paolo T. Coppola, MD, FACEP Pain, either chronic or acute, is the main reason patients seek medical care. In this article, we will discuss acute pain management in an urgent care setting, …