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Biomedical subjects

B D Schmitt

Publications and source records attributed to B D Schmitt.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

Behavioral aspects of temperature-taking.

Ear thermometry addresses two basic psychological aspects of fevers. The first one is obvious: the battle of the rectal temperature can be eliminated by ear thermometry. The second one addresses the overtreatment of tactile fevers. Tactile temperature taken by feeling the forehead occurs in 50% to 90% of homes. Half of warm foreheads occur in afebrile children who are warm because they're releasing heat generated by a recent activity or bath. If an actual temperature were measured, these children wouldn't be mislabeled as having fever and unnecessarily treated.

Age Factors

Magical thinking and imipramine poisoning in two school-age children.

Two young school-aged boys took an overdose of imipramine hydrochloride to help their enuresis. One child died, and the other required resuscitation. An office survey found that one third of school-aged children did not realize the potentially hazadous consequences of taking extra amounts of prescription medications. Physicians might be able to prevent similar needless tragedies by warning both the child and the parents of the unusual lethality of imipramine and other dangerous prescription drugs.

Accidents, Home

Current pediatric roles in child abuse and neglect.

Many pediatricians are being called on to undertake expanded roles in the field of child abuse and neglect, whether as a practicing pediatrician, a hospital-based child abuse consultant, or as a child protection team pediatrician. The practicing pediatrician must consider the diagnosis of child abuse and neglect, confirm the diagnosis, report all suspected cases to child protective services, hospitalize any abused child who needs protection, and provide preventive services. The hospital-based child abuse consultant should provide consultation to primary physicians, report seriously injured cases for the primary physician or surgeon, provide expert medical testimony on difficult to prove cases, teach house staff and medical students about child abuse and neglect, and improve treatment services for abused children who are hospitalized. The child protection team pediatrician will usually become involved in the broader problem of improving team decision making and the interagency system that deals with child abuse and neglect.

Child

Conjunctivitis in children. A refresher survey of diagnosis and contemporary treatment.

The management of acute conjunctivitis need not be confusing. In the newborn period the common etiologic agents are chemical, TRIC, and bacterial. The latter two causes are effectively treated with sulfacetamide ophthalmic preparations. Dacryostenosis should be suspected in any child with recurrent conjunctivitis in the first six months of life. With older children the major causes can be classified as viral, allergic, foreign bodies, and bacterial. Bacterial conjunctivitis almost always responds to sulfacetamide ophthalmic preparations.

Anti-Bacterial Agents

Pediatrics: cervical adenopathy in children.

Cervical adenopathies are common in children. The four categories, based on clinical findings are acute unilateral adenitis, acute bilateral adenitis, subacute (chronic) adenitis, and cervical node cancers. Most cases of acute pyogenic adenitis-both unilateral and bilateral-respond well to early antibiotic treatment. Penicillin is the drug of choice unless Staphylococcus aureus is thought to be the infecting organism. S aureus is trated with dicloxacillin or erythromycin. Subacute adenitis due to cat scratch fever usually resolves spontaneously. Nodes due to infection with atypical mycobacteria require excision. Because cervical node cancer is usually asymptomatic, excision and pathologic study should be done for any cervical node persistently enlarged without apparent reason.

Acute Disease