Why should I care about this? Ok, so it may not be that interesting, however, we should still review how to responsibly remove a helmet. In NYC, we very rarely encounter injured patients with a helmet on and that’s probably because they wer…
Summary Summary Anatomy of the Lisfranc Joint The Lisfranc joint consists of the articulation of the first three metatarsal bases with their respective cuneiforms and the 4th/5th metatarsal bases with the cuboid, along with associated ligam…
Intro You are working a BNT shift at Elmhurst and you pick up a patient who is complaining of neck pain after a fall. Do they need to be in a c-collar? Should you order a CT c-spine? What are the unstable c-spine injuries you are looking fo…
Trauma Survey: Burns are trauma, treat these pts as such. Don’t let yourself get distracted by the obvious superficial injuries/wounds and be sure to go down your algorithm so you don’t miss anything. PRIMARY: Airway: Look for signs of acti…
An uncommon injury caused by three or more rib fractures in two places Injury resulting from blunt trauma such as a motor vehicle accident (75%), falls (15%) or direct percussion to the chest Causes decrease intrathoracic pressure, ineffect…
So you’re working a busy A side shift at Elmhurst and you get an alert from EMS about a polytrauma. The patient rolls through the door alert but moaning in pain with obvious road rash to the bilateral lower extremities. He states he was in…
Tl;dr: (1) Never rock the pelvis. Firmly squeeze and hold. (2) Consider quickly assessing for rectal or vaginal bleeding prior to binder application as this would suggest an open fx into the vag / rectal vault. It will be difficult to compl…
Surgical resident X: “We have to get the chest X-ray before we go to CT.” EM resident Y: “Honestly, [surgical colleague X], I don’t think we do. The FAST didn’t have any evidence of pneumothorax, so I think we…
So, you’ve just finished suturing an uncomplicated laceration and you think to yourself: should I apply antibiotic ointment or just cover with a bandage with good return precautions? Answer: There is some limited evidence to support…
There you were, minding your own business when EMS brings you a sick-as-can-be patient, intubated in the field for who knows what. Someone gets overzealous with their trauma shears and cuts off the pilot balloon on the endotracheal tube. Th…
Title: Validation of a prediction rule for the identification of children with intra-abdominal injuries after blunt torso trauma Article Citation: Holmes JF, Mao A, Awasthi S, McGahan JP, et al. Validation of a prediction rule for the ident…
Happy 4th of July! I’m taking the day to review a commonly incurred injury on the holiday: burns. Whether it’s from operating a grill after a few too many libations or an unfortunate encounter with fireworks, the incidence of bu…
Traumatic Brain Injury & Neurocritical Care You’ve just intubated your traumatic brain injury patient and the repeat pupil exam shows signs of herniation. In addition to your other interventions (e.g., Reverse Trendelenburg positioning,…
“Dogs never bite me. Just humans.” -Marilyn Monroe Human bites are the third most common bite after dog and cat bites. They occur more frequently in males, typically between the late teens and in the twenties. Clos…
Article Citation: Weiss EA, Oldham G, Lin M, Foster T, Quinn JV. Water is a safe and effective alternative to sterile normal saline for wound irrigation prior to suturing: a prospective, double-blind, randomised, controlled clinical trial….
