Do-Not-Attempt-Resuscitation Orders
BACKGROUND Print Section Listen With medicine’s increasing capabilities, situations arise in which possible interventions will not serve the patient’s or the family’s goals of care. Under such circumstances, the decision…
Human and Animal Bites
BACKGROUND Print Section Listen In the United States, as many as 1% of all pediatric visits to emergency departments during the summer months are for the treatment of human or…
Infant Botulism
BACKGROUND Print Section Listen Infant botulism, the most common form of botulism encountered in the United States, has a unique pathogenesis. Unlike food-borne botulism, which results from the ingestion of…
Introduction to the Child with Medical Complexity
BACKGROUND Print Section Listen The care of children with medical complexity (CMC) is an increasingly central component of pediatric hospital medicine. While there is no consensus definition for this population,…
Envenomation
BACKGROUND Print Section Listen Bites and envenomations account for 3% of phone calls to poison control centers.1 In North America, venomous animals vary by specific region and include varied terrestrial…
Hypothermia and Cold-Related Injuries
BACKGROUND Print Section Listen In the United States, hypothermia should be a preventable disease, yet between 1999 and 2011, an average of 1301 people per year die of excessive natural…
Heat Disorders
BACKGROUND Print Section Listen Heat disorders such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke result from a failure of the body’s regulatory mechanisms to maintain a constant body temperature. Individuals at the…
Lead, Other Metals, and Chelation Therapy
LEAD Print Section Listen Lead is a highly toxic metal, and exposure to it can produce a wide range of adverse health effects.1,2 It is a soft, pliable metal that…
Fire-Related Inhalational Injury
BACKGROUND Print Section Listen Fire-related injuries constitute a major health hazard in the United States. It is estimated there is a civilian fire death every 175 minutes, and a civilian…
