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Background: Sepsis is a common problem encountered in the emergency room which needs to be intervened early. Predicting prognosis is always a difficult task in busy emergency rooms using present scores, which has several variables to calculate. Red cell distribution width (RDW) is an easy, cheap, and efficacious score to predict the severity and mortality of patients with sepsis. Methods: This prospective analytical study was conducted in the emergency room of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital among the patients age ≥ 16 years and with a clinical diagnosis of sepsis using qSOFA score. 148 patients were analyzed in the study by using a non-probability purposive sampling method. Results: RDW has fair efficacy to predict the mortality in sepsis (Area under the Curve of 0.734; 95% C. I = 0.649-0.818; p-value = 0.000) as APACHE II (AUC of 0.728; 95% C. I = 0.637 to 0.819; p-value = 0.000) or SOFA (AUC of 0.680, 95% C. I = 0.591-0.770; p-value = 0.001). Youden Index was maximum (37%) at RDW value 14.75, which has a sensitivity of 83% (positive likelihood ratio = 1.81) and specificity of 54% (negative likelihood ratio = 0.32). Out of 44 patients with septic shock 16 died (36.4%) and among 104 patients without septic shock, 24 died (22.9%) which had the odds ratio of 0.713 (p = 0.555, 95% C. I = 0.231-2.194). Overall mortality was 27.02% (n = 40). RDW group analysis showed no mortality in RDW < 13.1 group, 3.6% mortality in 13.1 to 14 RDW group, 22.0% mortality in 14 to > 15.6 RDW group and 45.9% mortality in > 15.6 RDW group. Significant mortality difference was seen in 14 to > 15.6 and > 15.6 RDW subgroups with a p-value of 0.003 and 0.008 respectively. Conclusion: Area under the curve value for RDW is fair enough to predict the mortality of patients with sepsis in the emergency room. It can be integrated with other severity scores (APACHE II or SOFA score) for better prediction of prognosis of septic patients.

Introduction:Since the Emergency Department (ED) of TUTH lacks uniformity in the treatment of stroke patients, it is assumed that these patients do not receive standard treatment in terms of reduction of blood pressure (BP), control of hyperglycemia and treatment with antithrombotic agents. Our hospital-based study aims to assess the mean stay of stroke patients in the ED and the level of optimal treatment they are getting. Methods:A retrospective hospital-based study among 82 patients diagnosed as CVA in the ED (who later got admitted), was carried out using medical records. History, clinical examinations, investigations and treatment given were analysed to gather relevant information.Results: Mean age of occurrence of stroke in the inpatients visiting ED was found to be 62.4 years. Average duration of stay in the ED before admission was 13 hours. Ischaemic stroke was almost four times more common than haemorrhagic stoke. All the patients with haemorrhagic stroke who had indication for reduction in BP received antihypertensive medications. However, 28% of the patients with ischaemic stroke, eventhough having indication for BP reduction, did not receive antihypertensives. Out of 11 patients who had an indication for reduction in blood sugar, only one patient (9%) received treatment with insulin. Only 52% of the patients who had ischaemic stroke received treatment with aspirin. Conclusions:There is lack of uniformity regarding the treatment of stroke in terms of blood pressure reduction, hyperglycemia and antithrombotic treatment. A standard protocol needs to be developed in order to bring uniformity and efficiency in the treatment of stroke.

Introduction: Among critically ill patients presenting to Emergency Room (ER) of Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), a number of patients have to either remain in ER or have to be referred outside due to unavailability of critical care beds. Studies have shown significant association between delayed admission and mortality rates along with increased length of stay and higher cost. This study aimed to present an audit of critically ill patients presenting to ER of TUTH. Methods: This was a prospective study conducted over a period of one month. All patients presenting to ER of TUTH were triaged and critically ill patients were shifted to Red area of the ER. All patients ≥16 years of age shifted to Red area during the study period were enrolled in our study. Results: Out of 3718 patients presenting to ER during the study period, the number of critically ill patients ≥16 years of age was 526 i.e. 14.14% of total patients. Among them, the common diagnosis were Cerebrovascular Accidents (CVA) followed by Intoxication, Acute Exacerbation (AE) of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Pneumonia and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) respectively. Almost 20% of these patients were admitted, 31% were referred and 40% were shifted for observation. The median length of ER stay was 6 hours (Mean: 8.5 hrs; Range: 20 min to 70 hr 15 min). Conclusion: Among critically ill patients presenting to our ER, almost 1/5th of the patients were admitted whereas more than 2/3rd were either referred or remained in our ER. This data highlights the need for solutions to provide optimal care for the acute phase management of the critically ill patients.

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