Ectopic pregnancies are one of the most common obstetric diagnoses made in the emergency department. Once diagnosed, patients can be managed expectantly, medically, or surgically. Decisions regarding patient management are made using evidence-based protocols. Hemodynamically stable patients with reduced beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) levels and a small mass on ultrasonography are managed with methotrexate therapy. Although most patients adequately treated with methotrexate resolve, there are a few rare instances where patients progress to develop a ruptured ectopic despite having low and declining beta-HCG levels. These patients must be taken for surgical evacuation at the earliest opportunity to prevent life-threatening hemorrhage. Hence, obstetricians must be prepared for such potential complications of low-risk ectopic pregnancies.
Endometrial carcinoma is the leading cause of gynecologic malignancies in the United States. Unlike other malignancies, endometrial carcinoma presents early with the most common clinical symptom being uterine bleeding (including irregular menses, inter-menstrual bleeding, and postmenopausal bleeding, or PMB). Hence, the evaluation of PMB should have efficient and effective strategies to prevent a missed diagnosis of malignancy and to facilitate an early diagnosis for potentially curative treatment.Transvaginal ultrasound is appropriate to evaluate PMB initially. If imaging reveals an endometrial thickness of ≤4 mm, endometrial sampling is not warranted, given the high negative predictive value (>99%) of this finding for endometrial carcinoma. In women with persistent or recurrent bleeding, if blind endometrial sampling does not show endometrial hyperplasia or malignancy, further testing with hysteroscopy with dilation and curettage is indicated. However, in cases of PMB with an endometrial thickness of ≤4 mm on transvaginal ultrasound, little information can be gained from endometrial sampling alone as the chance of getting an adequate sample is low and malignancy is rare. For such patients, outpatient hysteroscopy has become a convenient and cost-effective procedure that may be done before an endometrial sampling.
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