ED physicians need to be comfortable with the various modalities of opioid substitution therapy (OST) and their associated complications.  We are all familiar with the patient who has missed a daily dose of methadone on the way to booking and is subsequently brought to the ED by corrections officers to address this issue.  A recent […]

There are approximately 8 million ED visits annually in the United States for chest pain. 10%-20% go on to receive an acute coronary syndrome diagnosis. The goal of the ED physician is to differentiate between ischemic chest pain and other, more benign causes of chest pain. Historical features and laboratory values are helpful, but 2%-5% […]

Resist the urge to administer a large crystalloid bolus in hypotensive trauma patients. Doing so worsens coagulopathy and acidosis. This practice should be abandoned. Normotensive trauma patients need no fluid resuscitation. The practice of permissive hypotension in trauma improves has been demonstrated to improve morbidity and mortality (selected references below). Hypotensive trauma patients require surgical […]

It’s well known that the risk of venous thromboembolism is increased during pregnancy.  It is thought to be two-to-six times higher than the risk in non-pregnant women.  However, these risk estimates are based on pregnant populations that go on to deliver a baby.  Last year Ray et al. published a paper describing their findings on […]

A few days ago NEJM published the results of an investigation with profound implications for our specialty.  A group of intensivists and anesthesiologists conducted a multicenter, randomized trial conducted in seven ICUs to study the use of bag-mask ventilation to prevent hypoxemia during intubation.  401 patients were randomized to either bag mask ventilation or no […]