During a slow morning in the pediatric emergency department last week, I decided to pass the time scrolling through puppy pictures on behalf of National Puppy Day. By page 98,3457 of a Google image search for “puppies,” I imagine a dog barking on the other side of the ED. I Read more…
It is 4 AM in the morning and a 50 year-old male is next to be seen in the emergency department. You think to yourself, what can possibly compel this patient to leave the warm comforts of his bed to come to the ED in the dead of night? Chest pain? Belly pain and vomiting? Either way, you have your treatment algorithm ready in your head until he throws you a curveball. “Hey doc, I got these hiccups I just cannot get rid of…”
Welcome to Wednesday Wrap Up! Here is a summary of what we learned in conference today:
Click here to review the case. This is a 5 year-old boy who came to the ED for an asthma exacerbation in the setting of 3 days of rhinorrhea and sore throat. He has been taking his albuterol with minimal improvement. He has had at least 2 exacerbations in the Read more…
It’s Sunday morning 10 am and a patient finally pops up on the whiteboard: “19 Y M, CHEST PAIN.” Your favorite. The patient is a 19 year-old man with no PMH BIBEMS with chest pain. He lifted weights yesterday, and this morning woke up with soreness in his mid chest Read more…
Thoracic Aortic Dissection A difficult to diagnose, uncommon, and potentially fatal condition: Emergency Medicine at its finest! Let’s talk about a patient we think see every day in the ED. A man comes in complaining of chest pain with elevated blood pressure of 200/90 upon triage. The ECG shows sinus Read more…
29 year-old male arrives as a trauma notification. EMS states patient had a single gunshot wound to the mid-chest with vitals as follows: HR 120, BP 90/50, RR 22, SpO2 95%. The patient is mumbling incoherently with spontaneous eye movements and is reacting to pain. As the trauma Read more…
You’re sitting in the critical area when EMS bursts through the trauma bay doors with a 34 year-old male with PMH of asthma in respiratory distress. EMS alerts you that they’ve placed a line, started 1g of magnesium sulfate, given 10 mg of dexamethasone, and the patient is on his Read more…
Working in the ED is a shiftwork job, which for many, is part of the draw. We never get paged after hours. We work less overall hours than many of our physician colleagues in other fields. And we can avoid crowds when we run errands or enjoy popular attractions on weekdays Read more…
Clinical CT for April 2016 by Adam Blumenberg MD Special thanks to Mark Silverberg MD A 78 year-old man presents to the ED for pre-syncope and back pain. Physical exam is remarkable for systolic blood pressure in the 80s and a pulsatile abdominal mass. Computed tomography imaging of the abdomen Read more…