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A potential etiology of anxiety and agitation in the posthead trauma patient is cortical blindness. Cortical blindness can be seen after both mild and severe head trauma. Early recognition and understanding of this syndrome can lead to a decreased anxiety level, not only for the patient, but for the parents as well. Two cases of posttraumatic cortical blindness are presented. The signs and symptoms of cortical blindness, its presentation, diagnosis, and outcome are discussed. The available literature is reviewed and discussed.

A search of the medical literature failed to reveal any articles that discuss pediatric injuries acquired on privately owned recreational trampolines. This study was undertaken to quantify and qualify pediatric injuries from recreational trampoline use. A group of 114 patients who presented to the Emergency Department at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, with injuries directly related to use of a trampoline are discussed. There was a 1.2:1 male-female ratio. The average age was 8.0 years. Forty-eight percent of the patients were injured on their family's trampoline, with the remainder injured on a friend's, neighbor's, relative's, or gymnasium's equipment. The majority of injuries involved group use of the trampoline and the youngest person in a group was most often the injured participant. Extremity injuries were seen in 55% of the patient and head or neck injuries in 37%. Seventy-five percent of the patients required radiographs, 23% hospitalization, and 17% operative intervention. The history of the trampoline and medical literature discussions concerning injuries and safety are reviewed.

Chest pain in adolescents and younger children is most often benign, and cardiac causes are rare. We present a 16-year-old with chest pain temporally related to cocaine use and discuss the relationship between cocaine use and acute myocardial infarction that has been seen in the adult population. Pediatricians and emergency physicians should consider cocaine abuse in the evaluation of an adolescent with chest pain.

The toxic effects of oral diphenhydramine are well documented and include central nervous system and anticholinergic symptomatology. We present a case of diphenhydramine intoxication from combined oral/percutaneous medication. Overzealous application of a commercially available topical diphenhydramine preparation resulted in hallucinations and other side effects in a five-year-old child with varicella.

This study investigates the effects of perceived mathematics ability (PMA) on the learning process with special reference to 147 undergraduates following an elementary statistics (ES) course. A model incorporating PMA together with aptitude, effort put in, expected grade, motivation to do well and interest in the subject, which are deemed to be either directly or indirectly associated with performance, is developed. PMA itself is not a good predictor of ES performance, rather its effect may be channelled through interest, expected grade and motivation to do well in ES. Low perception in mathematics ability impedes effort put forth when learning ES. The influence of PMA on ES performance is likely to be the consequence of the belief that mathematics is essential to learn ES.