The Textbook of Pediatric Emergency Medicine: Evidence-Based Assessment, Resuscitation, Trauma, and Acute Care Across Signs, Symptoms, and Medical Emergencies in Children

Pediatric emergency medicine demands a distinct clinical discipline. The child in the emergency department is not a scaled-down adult. From the neonate with a duct-dependent cardiac lesion to the adolescent with suicidal ideation, every patient requires age-specific physiological knowledge, weight-based pharmacological precision, and a clinical reasoning framework built around how emergency physicians actually think, assess, and decide. This textbook was written to deliver all three.The Textbook of Pediatric Emergency Medicine is a comprehensive, evidence-based clinical reference written for pediatric emergency medicine fellows, emergency medicine residents, pediatric residents, emergency physicians, and advanced practice providers who manage acutely ill and injured children across the full spectrum of pediatric emergency care.The book opens with foundational chapters covering the structure and quality standards of the pediatric emergency department, the developmental and physiological differences that define pediatric emergency practice from the neonatal period through adolescence, evidence-based clinical reasoning and validated decision rules including PECARN, Pediatric Appendicitis Score, Phoenix Sepsis Criteria, and the CATCH and CHALICE head injury rules, and pediatric pharmacology including weight-based dosing principles and high-alert medication safety.The resuscitation and stabilization section covers pediatric airway assessment and management including rapid sequence intubation and the difficult airway algorithm, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and post-resuscitation care, shock recognition and resuscitation across hypovolemic, distributive, cardiogenic, obstructive, and anaphylactic subtypes, and a dedicated chapter on the critically ill neonate and young infant covering age-stratified fever evaluation, duct-dependent congenital heart disease, neonatal seizures, and BRUE.The signs and symptoms section gives every major presenting complaint its own dedicated chapter built around diagnostic reasoning and evidence-based management. Coverage includes fever, respiratory distress and wheezing, altered consciousness, seizures and status epilepticus, headache, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, chest pain and syncope, rash and skin emergencies, eye emergencies, ENT emergencies, limp and musculoskeletal complaints, genitourinary and reproductive emergencies, neurological signs including acute weakness and ataxia, the inconsolable infant, edema and pallor, and a dedicated chapter on adolescent-specific emergencies.Medical emergencies by system are covered across infectious disease including sepsis and meningitis, hematologic and oncologic emergencies including sickle cell crises and febrile neutropenia, endocrine and metabolic emergencies including DKA and adrenal crisis, environmental and toxicologic emergencies, and behavioral and psychiatric emergencies including suicide risk assessment and agitation management.The trauma section covers the primary survey and resuscitation, head trauma and the PECARN decision rule, thoracic and abdominal trauma, musculoskeletal trauma including Salter-Harris fractures and compartment syndrome, and burns, drowning, and special injury patterns. Surgical emergencies, emergency procedures, procedural sedation and pain management, and special populations including technology-dependent children, child maltreatment, disaster medicine, and global pediatric emergency care complete the book.Every chapter follows a consistent architecture built around clinical assessment, differential diagnosis, evidence-based management, and a closing clinical decision framework. Each chapter includes clinical pearls, an evidence-based medicine box referencing named trials and current guidelines, and a clinical decision algorithm.Back matter includes weight-based drug dosing references, normal vital signs by age, and procedure equipment sizing guides. Read more