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Background: Iatrogenic femoral artery pseudoaneurysm formation after intervention of the femoral artery may present weeks after intervention. We report a case of a patient with delayed pseudoaneurysm diagnosis that was ultimately diagnosed with bedside ultrasound. Importantly, our case demonstrates a patient who had a left-sided atherectomy and angioplasty with microcatheter access of the right femoral artery., Case Report: A 68-year-old man with multiple comorbidities presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with right inguinal pain, swelling, and overlying skin changes 17 days after an interventional radiology-guided left-sided femoral artery atherectomy and angioplasty. His first postoperative ED visit at an outside hospital led to the diagnosis of a hematoma vs. abscess, with attempted bedside drainage. On presentation to our ED, a bedside ultrasound confirmed arterial pseudoaneurysm formation of the right femoral artery. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: In patients presenting with the constellation of symptoms after arterial site intervention of either side, iatrogenic pseudoaneurysm should be in the differential. Although the patient had atherectomy and angioplasty of the left femoral artery, it is important to highlight that both femoral arteries were accessed during intervention, and thus, both sites are at risk for pseudoaneurysm formation. Emergency sonography can be a useful tool to diagnose, expedite treatment, and avoid potentially harmful invasive procedures in patients presenting with pain and swelling after arterial site intervention., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction. Stress cardiomyopathy, or takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is an acute, reversible left ventricular dysfunction usually initiated by a psychological or physical stress. We report this case of stress cardiomyopathy following a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation and the subsequent treatment. Case Description. A 49-year-old white female with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease presented to the emergency room via emergency medical services with worsening severe shortness of breath and productive cough for 2 weeks but denied any chest pain on arrival. On presentation, she was noted to be tachypneic, using her accessory muscles and with bilateral coarse expiratory wheezing on lung auscultation. Initial electrocardiogram demonstrated sinus tachycardia. She was treated with multiple albuterol treatments. Soon afterwards, the course was complicated by hypoxic respiratory failure eventually requiring intubation. Her repeat electrocardiogram showed acute changes consistent with myocardial infarction, and an echocardiograph demonstrated apical akinesia with an ejection fraction of 25% to 30%. The patient was urgently taken for cardiac catheterization, which showed no angiographic evidence of coronary artery disease. Three days after initial presentation, a repeat transthoracic echocardiogram showed overall left ventricular systolic function improvement. Discussion. This case provided a unique look at the difficulty of balancing catecholamines in a patient with bronchospasm and stress cardiomyopathy.

The time-course of the effects of single-dose acid-reducing therapy in surgical patients is not known. Therefore, a prospective, randomized trial compared the effects of single-dose administration of omeprazole or ranitidine on gastric pH in 52 patients undergoing lower abdominal surgery. The two drugs were administered intravenously in random fashion after placement of a gastric electrode for continuous 24-h pH monitoring In patients receiving omeprazole 20 mg (n = 13) and 40 mg (n = 13), gastric pH > or = 2.5 was achieved after a median of 80 (range 15-269) min and 40 (6-102) min (P = not significant [NS]), whereas in those receiving ranitidine 25 mg (n = 13) and 50 mg (n = 13), this pH was reached after a median of 32 (15-82) and 44 (16-84) min, respectively (P = NS). Over the first 24 h postoperatively, gastric pH remained less than 2.5 for a significantly longer time (1060 min vs 611 min), and more than 4.0 for a significantly shorter time (240 min vs 780 min) after omeprazole 20 mg than after ranitidine 50 mg. There were no other significant differences among treatment groups regarding the duration of gastric pH less than 2.5, between 2.5 and 4.0, and more than 4.0. In all treatment groups, the gastric pH returned to the baseline value of < 2.0 within 18 h. We conclude that when it is desired that gastric pH be more than 4.0 for at least 3 h, a single dose of ranitidine 25 mg or 50 mg should be administered 30-45 min prior to induction of anesthesia.

In a prospective study 519 patients had gastroscopy (393 with and 126 without midazolam-premedication) and 506 patients had colonoscopy (377 with and 129 without midazolam-premedication) to evaluate acceptance, adverse reactions and reactivity after midazolam-premedication in outpatients immediately and 24 hours later by standard telephone interview. Patients could choose whether they would have midazolam or not. Normally 2 mg midazolam for gastroscopy and 4 mg for colonoscopy were given intravenously directly before endoscopy. 71.5% of gastroscopy and 75.3% of colonoscopy patients who received midazolam afterwards accepted endoscopy only with premedication. 27.7% of our gastroscopy and 14.1% of the colonoscopy patients who than received midazolam were beforehand unable to decide about premedication by themselves. 27.5% of the gastroscopy and 13.8% of the colonoscopy group were persuaded to have midazolam by the doctor examining. 12.7% of our gastroscopy- and 27.1% of our colonoscopy-patients who wished to have midazolam were persuaded to withdraw from it. There were no cardio-pulmonal complications but fatigue was found in 35.4% of the gastroscopy Patients with and 11.9% of those without premedication; colonoscopy patients: 50.4% with and 34.9% without premedication. The incidence of headache was: gastroscopy patients: 6.4% vs. 4%; colonoscopy patients: 11.1% vs. 10.9%. Dizziness: gastroscopy patients: 6.4% vs. 3.2%; colonoscopy patients: 7.6% vs. 7%. Nausea and vomiting were rare (0 to 5%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)