Journal article
Analysis of emergency department management of suspected bacterial meningitis
Annals of emergency medicine, Vol.18(8), pp.856-862
1989
DOI: 10.1016/S0196-0644(89)80213-6
PMID: 2757283
Abstract
Previous studies of emergency department management of bacterial meningitis have indicated that there are often long delays before initiation of antibiotics. The purpose of our study was to determine whether these delays were related to specific aspects of patient management. From 1981 through 1988, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 122 patients primarily evaluated in the ED and admitted for suspected bacterial meningitis at a university (55) and a community (67) hospital. The median time (interquartile range) from ED registration until initiation of antibiotics (time to antibiotics) was 3.0 hours (1.6 and 4.3 hours, respectively) (total range, 0.5 to 18 hours). The time to antibiotics was not significantly related to the time of ED registration. Ninety percent of the total time to antibiotics occurred after the initial physician encounter. Time to antibiotics was significantly (
P < .00005) longer for patients in whom computed tomography scan and/or laboratory analysis of cerebrospinal fluid preceded initiation of antibiotics compared with patients in whom antibiotic administration was not contingent on the results of these procedures (4.3 [3.2 and 6.0] versus 1.9 [1.2 and 3.4] hours, respectively). Also, time to antibiotics was significantly (
P < .00005) longer for patients in whom antibiotics were initiated on the ward as compared with in the ED (4.5 [3.5 and 6.8] versus 2.2 [1.4 and 3.5] hours, respectively). We conclude that long delays exist in the ED before initiation of antibiotics for cases of suspected bacterial meningitis, and that in general these delays appear to be physician generated and to a great extent potentially avoidable.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Analysis of emergency department management of suspected bacterial meningitis
- Creators
- David A Talan - Olive View-UCLA Medical CenterJeffrey J Guterman - Olive View-UCLA Medical CenterGary D Overturf - Olive View-UCLA Medical CenterCraig Singer - Olive View-UCLA Medical CenterJerome R Hoffman - Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical CenterBret Lambert - UCLA Medical Center
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Annals of emergency medicine, Vol.18(8), pp.856-862
- Publisher
- Mosby, Inc
- DOI
- 10.1016/S0196-0644(89)80213-6
- PMID
- 2757283
- ISSN
- 0196-0644
- eISSN
- 1097-6760
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 1989
- Academic Unit
- Emergency Medicine; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984297134702771
Metrics
25 Record Views