Heat stroke is classified as temps >40.6C with neurological dysfunction and is secondary to a failure in ones thermoregulatory system. It is classically non-exertional and seen in elderly patients during a heat wave or being in a van on a hot day. Can also occur from physical activity like with young football players in hotRead more
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Abscesses are already painful and can cause scars, so why don’t we try a cool move to minimize this for patients? Loop drainage has come to the forefront due to lower failure rates, less scaring, continuous draining, and no need for packing/repacking! How is it done? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkEidzzs0JY) 1. Numb the abscess with lidocaine +/- epiRead more
Sometimes the most serious oncologic emergencies present very benignly: a slow nose bleed (portending DIC), a low grade fever (neutropenic bacteremia), vague weakness/fatigue (an undiagnosed leukemia)… The triage nurse calls you out to triage to evaluate a patient as the resus resident. He is concerned because the patient is complaining of “I can’t walk straight,”Read more
32-year-old, “otherwise healthy,” man with severe, sharp, epigastric abdominal pain. Your differential is broad enough, but you target a few questions: Drinker? (No.) Gastritis/GERD/PUD in the past? (No.) Gallstones? (No.) Smoker/Hypertensive/your-aorta-or-mesenterics-are-in-trouble? (No.) Bitten by a scorpion lately? (No.) Jokes aside, you’re thorough. He has had terrible, worsening, constant pain for the last 2-3 days. NoRead more
It’s summer. Drowning is a tragedy that kills about half-million people each year worldwide, and is the second leading cause of traumatic death among children age 1 to 4 in the United States. Death from drowning (i.e. respiratory failure secondary to submersion/immersion in a liquid) occurs acutely secondary to hypoxia, laryngospasm, and aspiration. If survivingRead more
An intake / peds / fast-track chief complaint with an almost certain procedure: ingrown toenail. To state what may be obvious, this occurs when the distal portion of the nail has improperly grown into the lateral nail folds. It causes inflammation, pain, and often a paronychia, too. It can be caused by poorly fitting (tight) shoes,Read more
As promised, another EMS-related post. Imagine yourself the first to arrive on the scene of a bus accident when you’re driving on your next road-trip vacation. Patients (limp, crawling, walking) are strewn about the street next to the over-turned vehicle, and you can see another dozen or so more people inside–some moving, some screaming, othersRead more
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’re safe to proceed to the CT scanner rather than wait for X-ray right now.” Surgical residentRead more
The use of Transexamic (spell that 10 times fast) Acid, or TXA, in trauma is largely based on the CRASH2 trial. This was a large, multi-center, randomized controlled trial with over 20,000 patients that demonstrated a mortality benefit of TXA for trauma patients when initiated within 3 hours of the injury. The NNT is 68, with anRead more
The term “COPD Exacerbation” is itself kind of ambiguous, but most definitions overlap with a patient carrying a chronic obstructive disease diagnosis presenting with increased sputum or cough, or increased shortness of breath reasonably above baseline. The benefit of a minimum-five-day course of antibiotics (azithromycin in most cases, though the benefit was seen no matterRead more