Matthew J. Snyder, Marjorie Guthrie, Stephen Cagle
Appendicitis is one of the most common causes of acute abdominal pain in adults and children, and the most common nonobstetric surgical emergency during pregnancy. Right lower quadrant pain, abdominal rigidity, and periumbilical pain radiating to the right lower quadrant are...
Ku-Lang Chang, Juan Carlos Guarderas
Clinical presentations of allergic diseases, respiratory infections, and autoimmune conditions have similar features. Allergy and immunologic testing can help clarify the diagnosis and guide treatment. For patients with an inhalant allergy, skin and immunoglobulin E–specific...
Craig Barstow, Brian Shahan, Melissa Roberts
Medical decision-making capacity is the ability of a patient to understand the benefits and risks of, and the alternatives to, a proposed treatment. Patients have medical decision-making capacity if they can demonstrate understanding of the situation, appreciation of the...
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Mark H. Ebell
A short course of oral corticosteroids is appropriate for many patients with specific conditions. However, widespread use of corticosteroids in patients with non-pneumonia lower respiratory tract infection, nonsevere sore throat, or low back pain is inappropriate and not...
Christopher E. Jonas, Francesca Cimino, Chad Hulsopple
Procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy, when compared with routine treatments, results in decreased mortality in patients with acute respiratory infections (absolute risk reduction [ARR] = 1.4%; number needed to treat [NNT] = 71).
Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar
Individual behavioral counseling conducted by a trained therapist provides some benefit when compared with brief counseling and support; however, this benefit is less pronounced in the context of pharmacotherapy.
Gholamreza Roodsari, Shahriar Zehtabchi
Despite reported benefits associated with the use of hypertonic saline for bronchiolitis, we have chosen a yellow recommendation because the more recent trials and systematic reviews have shown either much smaller effect size or no benefit at all compared with the older...
Matthew Hawks, Charlie Collenborne
A seven-year-old girl presented with an asymmetric, hyperpigmented lesion that was isolated to the iris of her left eye.
Rebekah Byrne, Edwin Dennard
Participation in a prenatal yoga program may help reduce labor pain, but reported effects vary from modest to moderate.
Kinder Fayssoux, Ruyam Mahmood, Jenna Grindle, Scott Nass
Patients believe that staples and subcuticular sutures provide similar cosmetic outcomes after cesarean deliveries. However, the risk of wound complications (e.g., infection, separation, hematoma, seroma) is doubled with staples.
Justin Faden, Gregg Gorton
By definition, the doorknob phenomenon or doorknob statement occurs when patients wait until the last moment in the clinical encounter—often while the physician is grasping the doorknob to exit the examination room—to utter something that, not uncommonly, provides crucial...
Henry C. Barry
In patients with subacromial shoulder pain of at least three months' duration who receive physical therapy, surgical decompression is no better than arthroscopy without decompression in improving pain or function, and neither is much better than no invasive intervention at all.
Mark H. Ebell
These results confirm that the use of statins for men with an LDL cholesterol level of at least 190 mg per dL, regardless of calculated risk, is associated with a clinically and statistically significant reduction in cardiovascular events and probably cardiovascular and all...
Henry C. Barry
In patients with stable angina and severe coronary artery disease (CAD), PCI plus optimal medical treatment does not improve exercise tolerance or angina more than sham PCI plus optimal medical treatment.
Mark H. Ebell
Just about every time someone asks, “Can I get away with a shorter course of antibiotics,” the answer is, “Yes, you can.” Shorter courses reduce cost and may reduce the likelihood of adverse events.
Lisa Hauk
This Expert Consensus Decision Pathway from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) aims to provide physicians with decision-making assistance for managing bleeding events in patients taking anticoagulants.
All editors in a position to control content for this activity, AFP journal, are required to disclose any relevant financial relationships. View disclosures.
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