Addressing the Issue of Antibiotic Resistance

Zachary Lutsky, MD, graduated at the top of his class at RFU/Chicago Medical School before going on to become an accomplished emergency physician, including at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he served for more than a decade. Throughout his career, Dr. Zachary Lutsky has had an interest in topics such as antibiotic resistance.

Posing a significant risk to public health, antibiotic resistance arises primarily from an overprescription of antibiotics. As urgent care centers across the country prescribe antibiotics for the common cold and other viral ailments unaffected by antibiotics, patients become at risk for gut issues and allergic reactions.

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that 30 percent or more of antibiotic prescriptions are gratuitous. This overprescription may lead to a loss of antibiotic effectiveness.

To combat this problem, the White House issued The National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in 2015, setting a goal for decreasing overprescription by half within five years. Some groups have tackled the issue by providing lists of non-antibiotic alternative prescriptions and requiring that the reason for prescribing an antibiotic be indicated in patients’ electronic health record.

Sudden Pains that Require a Visit to the Emergency Room

Dr. Zachary Lutsky is a board-certified practitioner of emergency medicine. For over 10 years, Dr. Zachary Lutsky provided medical care to patients with acute illnesses and severe injuries as an attending physician for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Emergency Department.

Sudden pain can be a sign of serious injury or illness that requires immediate treatment. Here are a few types of pain symptoms that should be addressed with medical attention.

Abdominal Pain -- Abdominal pain is often a symptom of serious conditions such as appendicitis or a ruptured spleen. Sudden pain combined with fever and/or bloody bowel movements, or abdominal pain that remains for longer than a few days, is a sign of a serious problem.

Testicular Pain -- Intense pain that appears suddenly may signal that the testicle is twisted. This is a dangerous condition that can prevent blood flow to the area. Testicular pain accompanied by nausea or fever should also be examined by a doctor.

Back Pain -- If lower back pain appears simultaneously with abdominal pain, it may be a sign of an aneurysm in the aorta, an artery that pumps blood throughout the body. The combination of these symptoms suggests that the aneurysm has ruptured the aorta, which can be life-threatening.

Headaches - Indicators That Emergency Care Might Be Appropriate

Since completing his graduate medical education in emergency medicine, Zachary Lutsky, MD, has practiced emergency medicine throughout California. In the course of doing so, Dr. Zachary Lutsky has diagnosed and treated a wide variety of conditions, including severe headaches.

Among the most common reasons people go to the emergency room, headaches can be a sign of a serious underlying medical problem. For example, medical emergencies like strokes and encephalitis can give rise to headaches. However, most headaches aren’t caused by a serious medical condition.

How can patients differentiate between dangerous headaches requiring immediate medical attention and common headaches that do not? If a person experiences a sudden headache with uncharacteristically severe pain, perhaps the worst headache pain they’ve ever encountered, they should call 911 or go immediately to an emergency room, as this could be a sign of internal bleeding.

Headache symptoms that worsen over a 24-hour period should also prompt an individual to seek medical attention. Headaches with additional symptoms like trouble seeing or speaking, vomiting, neck stiffness, paralysis, and/or fever are also among those that should compel someone to seek immediate medical care.

Type 2 Diabetes More Aggressive among Young Patients

Serving the needs of Southern California patients, Zachary Lutsky, MD, most recently engaged as an attending physician with the Emergency Department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Zachary Lutsky handled a wide range of emergencies, from heart attacks to shootings, and has a strong knowledge of general medicine.

With type 2 diabetes on the rise among young Americans, recent research has shown that diagnosis with the condition at an early age significantly elevates the mortality risks associated with stroke and heart disease.

According to the director of Montefiore Medical Center’s Clinical Diabetes Center in New York, type 2 diabetes is more aggressive when experienced among the young than when it targets the elderly.

This elevated impact is felt in areas such as inflammation, insulin resistance, and weight, all of which are associated with premature cardiovascular disease. In addition, it results in elevated lipotoxicity, or the unwanted buildup of cholesterol in areas of the body such as the kidneys, heart, and liver.

One area in which type 2 diabetes does not translate into increased risk seems to be cancer, with one reason being the slow initial rate of growth of such diseases, which are typically not diagnosed until the later years.