Emergency Room Guidelines Chest Pain

Emergency department clinical guidelines protocols the clinical guidelines and references provided on this website are developed by the department of emergency medicine at maine medical center.

Emergency room guidelines chest pain.

Chest pain is one of the common symptoms of various cardiac and non cardiac diseases that rushes the patients to the physician s office and emergency department. Chest pain accounts for approximately 7 6 million annual visits to emergency departments ed in the united states making chest pain the second most common complaint patients present with a spectrum of signs and symptoms reflecting the many potential etiologies of chest pain. Chest pain is defined as the acute onset of pain tightness or pressure in the anterior thorax region between the suprasternal notch the xiphoid process and both midaxillary lines. The american heart association american college of cardiology guidelines recommend that patients who present to the emergency department ed with chest pain and who are at low risk for acute coronary syndrome acs based on their history electrocardiogram ecg findings and cardiac biomarkers should undergo diagnostic cardiac testing.

Although a cardiovascular cause may be present in up to 20 of patients presenting with chest discomfort only 5 5 of these patients have an acute life. The information is believed but not guaranteed to be correct. 1 2 such testing is deemed useful to diagnose occult. Approximately 7 million patients present to the emergency department ed each year with chest pain at an estimated cost of 5 billion 1 1.