Author: Nicole Anthony, MD Aortic dissections are difficult to diagnose in a timely manner for a variety of reasons, chief among those being the variability in presenting symptoms from one patient to the next: “I have chest pain, and my right side doesn’t work” or “I have abdominal cramping and Read more…
Author: Robby Allen Edited by: Taylor Douglas and Eden Kim Case A 56-year-old male with PMH of hypertension, CHF, HIV, and obesity presents to the ED with a chief complaint of chest pain. He states the chest pain awoke him from sleep, radiates to the back and jaw, and began Read more…
Introduction As far as dangerous causes of chest pain go, acute aortic syndromes (aortic dissection, intramural thrombus, and penetrating aortic ulcer) can present a real diagnostic dilemma. They’re rare (with a prevalence of around 2-4 per 100,000 individuals), seem to present in a myriad of ways, and are invariably life-threatening. Read more…
Which aortic dissections need surgery? Although it is not the ED team’s decision whether to take a patient with dissection to the OR, it is vitally important for us to be familiar with the indications, so we can effectively advocate for our patients as needed. Management of aortic dissections differs Read more…
The first save of the month (and decade) goes to consecutive CCT Teams! Team #1: Dr S Johnson and Dr S Gopaul for stabilizing a sick patient and avoiding potentially catastrophic interventions in an undifferentiated patient who could have crashed Team #2: Dr S Desai and Dr R Walsh for Read more…
This month’s Save of the Month goes to Dr. Eric (Every)Rose(Has Its Thorn)Man. The Case A 53-year-old male with no reported past medical history presented with “sudden left side chest pain” x 15 mins. Vitals in triage were as follows: HR 125/min BP 163/113 mm Hg RR 20/min SpO2 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…
A 67 year-old male with history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus type II, dyslipidemia presents to the emergency department with 1 hour of severe chest discomfort that started while he was watching the evening news at home. The chest discomfort is substernal and radiates to his left shoulder and back. Review Read more…
Hello everyone! I’d like to start off by saying it’s an honor to contribute to this amazing group! I am one of three pharmacy residents at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and have had the opportunity of working with some of you at UHB. Starting this month, I will be posting Read more…