Introduction: Documentation and billing for laceration repair involves a description of wound length. We designed this study to test the hypothesis that emergency department (ED) personnel can accurately estimate wound lengths without the aid of a measuring device.

Methods: This was a single-center prospective observational study performed in an academic ED. Seven wounds of varying lengths were simulated by creating lacerations on purchased pigs’ ears and feet. We asked healthcare providers, defined as nurses and physicians working in the ED, to estimate the length of each wound by visual inspection.  Length estimates were given in centimeters (cm) and inches. Estimated lengths were considered correct if the estimate was within 0.5 cm or 0.2 inches of the actual length. We calculated the differences between estimated and actual laceration lengths for each laceration and compared the accuracy of physicians to nurses using an unpaired t-test.

Results: Thirty-two physicians (nine faculty and 23 residents) and 16 nurses participated.  All subjects tended to overestimate in cm and inches.  Physicians were able to estimate laceration length within 0.5 cm 36% of the time and within 0.2 inches 29% of the time. Physicians were more accurate at estimating wound lengths than nurses in both cm and inches. Both physicians and nurses were more accurate at estimating shorter lengths (<5.0 cm) than longer (>5.0 cm).

Conclusion: ED personnel are often unable to accurately estimate wound length in either cm or inches and tend to overestimate laceration lengths when based solely on visual inspection. Abstract [West J Emerg Med. 2014;15(7):–0.]

Direct CP violation in nonleptonic hyperon decays can be established by comparing the decays of hyperons and anti-hyperons. For Xi decay to Lambda pi followed by Lambda to p pi, the proton distribution in the rest frame of Lambda is governed by the product of the decay parameters alXi alLam. The asymmetry A_Xi Lambda, proportional to the difference of alXi alLam of the hyperon and anti-hyperon decays, vanishes if CP is conserved. We report on an analysis of a fraction of 1997 and 1999 data collected by the Hyper CP (E871) collaboration during the fixed-target runs at Fermilab. The preliminary measurement of the asymmetry is AXiLam = [ -7 pm 12(rm stat) pm 6.2(rm sys) ] times 10-4, an order of magnitude better than the present limit.

Non-conservation of CP symmetry can manifest itself in non-lepton ichyperon decays as a difference in the decay parameter between the strange-baryon decay and its charge conjugate. By comparing the decay distribution in the $\Lambda$ helicity frame for the decay sequence $\Xi- \to \Lambda \pi-$,$\Lambda \to p \pi-$with that of $\overline Xi+$ decay, E756 at Fermilab did not observe any CP-odd effect at the $10-2$ level. The status of a follow-up experiment, HyperCP (FNAL E871), to search for CP violation in charged $\Xi-\Lambda$ decay with a sensitivity of $10-4$is also presented.