You’re sitting in resus bemoaning the departure of your most beloved attending when suddenly a patient wheels in without warning. The patient looks relatively stable but the triage RN tells you her heart rate was in the 150s — no time for a full set of vitals or an EKG. You adeptly obtain these; theRead more
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Acute otitis externa (AOE) is a common complaint seen in pediatric as well as adult emergency departments. AOE is typically not accompanied by acute otitis media, although concurrent cases are possible. Also called “swimmer’s ear” due to the increased likelihood of developing after prolonged submersion in water, AOE can be caused by trauma, foreign bodiesRead more
Your patient in intake is miserable. Doubled over, complaining of pain everywhere, sweating, ill-appearing but not unstable. He tells you that the last time he used heroin was two nights ago, and he is asking for help. How do you treat this patient? And how do you determine what medication would be appropriate? There areRead more
As the late spring rains have begun to fade and the temperature rises mercilessly into the 80s and beyond, summer is finally upon us. And with summer comes a host of diseases for the emergency physician to consider. Heat stroke, mosquito- and tick-borne illnesses, chicken pox, an expanding measles outbreak…and a less threatening cause ofRead more
We have a new resource in the Sinai ED. Say hello to your friendly ED pharmacist. In the past several years, the ED pharmacy has been centralized in a non-ED location. We all know well these faceless interactions with a human reminding you to renally dose your Zosyn, stop ordering the bicarb drip that way…andRead more
You’re on a lovely amble through the backcountry when suddenly you see smoke rising nearby and catch a whiff of a familiar scent that throws you back to your med school OR days: burning flesh. You quickly find one obtunded, severely burned hiker who inadvertently set fire to his camp. After a quick airway assessmentRead more