Pocket Emergency Paediatric Care: A Practical Guide to the Diagnosis and Management of Paediatric Emergencies in Hospitals and Other Healthcare Facilities Worldwide

217 Pages·2002·0.74 MB·English

by  Shafique Ahmed

Pocket Emergency
Paediatric Care
Shafique Ahmad
and
David Southall
BMJ Books
Pocket
Emergency
Paediatric
Care

Pocket
Emergency
Paediatric
Care
A practical guide to the diagnosis and management of
paediatric emergencies in hospitals and other healthcare
facilities worldwide
Shafique Ahmad
and
David Southall
Child Advocacy International,
Newcastle Under Lyme, UK
and
Child Advocacy International,
Registered Charity 1071486
© BMJ Books 2003
BMJ Books is an imprint of the BMJ Publishing Group
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording and/or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
First published in 2003
by BMJ Books, BMA House, Tavistock Square,
London WC1H 9JR
www.bmjbooks.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7279 1701 3
Cover image image100 Ltd
Cover design by Egelnick and Webb
Typeset by SIVA Math Setters, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Spain by GraphyCems, Navarra
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
UNCRC standards xi
Section 1: Life-threatening emergencies 1
Essential knowledge 3
Triage 7
Resuscitation at birth 9
Paediatric life support 11
Recognition of the sick child 16
The shocked child 22
The unconscious child 26
Allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock 35
Status epilepticus 37
Poisoning 39
Section 2: Neonatal emergencies 47
Fluid and electrolyte balance in the ill neonate 49
Hypoglycaemia in the neonate 51
Hypoglycaemia in the ill neonate 52
Jaundice in the ill neonate 54
Respiratory problems in the neonate 57
Neonatal infections 59
Neonatal seizures 62
Neonatal hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) 64
Section 3: Specific emergencies 65
Respiratory and cardiovascular 67
Gastrointestinal/liver/renal 75
Neurological 98
vi POCKET EMERGENCY PAEDIATRIC CARE
Endocrine and metabolic 104
Infectious diseases 111
Environmental emergencies 127
Trauma and surgical emergencies 136
Section 4: Procedures and equipment 149
Section 5: Appendices 169
Index 195
Preface
This book is designed to fit into a handbag or shirt pocket. It
contains material which is usually required in a hurry when
treating a critically ill or injured infant or child. In addition to
information relevant to emergency care, there are what we
hope will be useful pages of data on subjects which without a
photographic memory would normally require reference to a
paediatric text book. Examples include a weight for height
chart, normal values for common biochemical tests, normal
developmental profiles and normal ECG measurements.
Finally, this book is meant to be used by paediatricians and
nurses working in hospitals all over the world. The authors
recognise that in many poorly resourced States the standards
required to achieve the levels of critical care outlined here
will not always be practical. However, our view is that all
children are entitled to minimum standards of care, as
outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child (see page xi) and that advocacy to achieve these
might be aided by this publication and by the actions of the
healthcare workers who use it.

Acknowledgements
The contents of this pocket book originate from a recent
publication entitled International Child Health Care: a
practical manual for hospitals worldwide, published by
BMJ Books and Child Advocacy International. Emergency
and critical care components which are chapters in the latter
book, have been extracted and summarised. We are therefore
particularly grateful to the original editors of the manual –
Dr B Coulter, Dr C Ronald, Dr S Nicholson and Dr S Parke.
We also thank the following chapter authors:
Dr Alastair Baker, Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, Dr Luz Marina
Lozano Chavarria, Andrew Clarke, Dr Nick Coleman,
Dr Ed Cooper, Dr Malcolm Coulthard, Dr Ariel Dhawan,
Dr Christopher Duke, Professor Michael Golden, Professor Nick
Guerina, Dr Devendra Kurnar Gupta, Dr James Hagadorn,
Dr Ismeta Kalkan, Dr Leela Kapila, Dr Anupam Lall, Dr David
Lalloo, Professor Michael Levin, Dr Mary Limebury, Dr Steve
Mannion, Dr Waghi El Masri, Professor Elizabeth Molyneux,
Dr Sarah Morley, Dr Robert Moy, Dr Charles Newton, Dr Peter
Oakley, Dr Bernhards Ogutu, Dr Deb Pal, Dr Silvia Patrizi,
Dr Barbara Phillips, Dr Shakeel Qureshi, Dr Anthony Roberts,
Dr Joan Robson, Dr Oliver Ross, Dr Martin Samuels, Dr Manoj
Shenoy, Dr Alan Smyth, Professor Taunton Southwood, Dr Peter
Sullivan, Professor R Theakston, Dr Sirijitt Vasanawathana,
Dr Jerry Wales, Dr Mary Warrell, Dr Anthony Williams,
Dr Gareth Tudor Williams, Dr Bridget Wills.
We are also grateful to the editors of the manual of Advanced
Paediatric Life Support (also published by BMJ Books), which
provided much of the information on emergencies and critical
care.
Finally we thank Dr P McCormick for contributions to the
malaria section, Dr Marion Schmidt for her help with the
neonatal section, and Dr M Samuels for his assistance with
proofreading this book.