Injectable Epinephrine: An Epidemic of Misuse

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"Injectable Epinephrine: An Epidemic of Misuse"
Gary J. Stadtmauer
January 20, 2015

(I'm no longer linking to Medscape articles because the links show personal info)

problem among both healthcare professionals and patients

My partner in practice once had a patient in the emergency department for hours getting fluids for hypotension (blood pressure, 80/50 mm Hg), along with antihistamines and corticosteroids as anaphylaxis management. The patient was concerned and called my partner in the middle of the night. The treating emergency physician refused to give epinephrine and challenged my partner to come in if he wanted to manage the case—which he in fact did, and the patient promptly responded to a single intramuscular dose of 0.3 mg (1:1000) epinephrine.

[CMdeux]

Just....



WOW.


   

Guessing that patient is glad to be alive today.

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"Half of Adults Not Using Epinephrine in Reactions, Study Finds"
http://allergicliving.com/2015/01/22/canadians-hesitant-to-use-epinephrine-study-finds/

"In adults, our study indicates that almost 50 percent of severe reactions are not treated with epinephrine in or outside of the hospital," says Dr. Moshe Ben-Shoshan, a pediatric allergist at Montreal Children's Hospital and a key researcher behind the Cross-Canada Anaphylaxis Registry.

[Macabre]

I got the email from medscape with that first article. Just yowza.   I freaked out.

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"Injectable Epinephrine: Why is It So Hard to Get the Message Across?"
http://asthmaallergieschildren.com/2015/02/02/injectable-epinephrine-why-is-it-so-hard-to-get-the-message-across/

Still, the caregivers, whether day care workers or parents, are only part of the problem. What about those EMS personnel? What about the emergency rooms, where the doctors operate by a different set of protocols and define anaphylaxis differently?