A patient presents to your ED with a painful, red ear. Is this just "ear celluliits?" No...no it isn't. Read on for a high yield summary of this potentially serious bacterial infection of the ear.
You are resuscitating a septic patient in the emergency department and are about to click on the order for a fluid bolus. You are confronted with several options for isotonic crystalloid including normal saline, lactated ringer's, and something called "Plasma-Lyte A." A New England Journal article, hot off of the presses, will almost certainly influence this decision in the coming months and years. Read on for a synopsis of this certain-to-be controversial paper.
Confused about thrombocytopenia? Here is a chart that helps break down common causes of increased platelet destruction...
A woman presents to your ED with vaginal swelling. Your correctly identify a Bartholin's abscess and the need for drainage. Here are some pearls on word catheter placement.
Autonomic dysreflexia is a potentially dangerous and lethal syndrome that develops in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients resulting in acute, uncontrolled, life-threatening hypertension.
Encephalitis is defined as inflammation of the brain parenchyma, frequently caused by viruses. Autoimmune processes can also cause encephalitis: here are some pearls on the often-forgotten Anti-NDMA receptor encephalitis.
The cancer population is at an increased risk for morbidity and mortality from common infections due to their impaired immunity. Knowledge on how to approach the febrile neutropenic patient can have a huge impact on an otherwise horrific mortality rate in this vulnerable population.
Obesity is a problem in the United States. More and more patients are receiving bariatric surgery, resulting in a predictably higher volume of patients seeking care in the ED for complications of surgery. Read on to learn more about some of the potentially devastating complications of the most common bariatric procedure: the roux-en-y bypass.
Modern immunizations in conjunction with better CT imaging has likely led to declining need for lumbar puncture in the emergency department to evaluate for meningitis and subarachnoid hemorrhage. This may contribute to physician discomfort with the procedure and lower likelihood of first attempt success. This study evaluated whether the addition of ultrasound guidance could increase first attempt success on infant lumbar puncture in the Emergency Department.
Intubation is a potentially dangerous procedure which may result in rapid hemodynamic collapse and cardiac arrest in the critically ill. This week we summarize the results of a large retrospective study to determine the clinical factors associated with cardiac arrest after intubation.
