Clinical Pearls

• Local Anesthetic Systemic Toxicity – Is Fat The New “Wonder Drug?”

  Image Credit: Photo by NIH: https://flic.kr/p/nQg4F7 Author: Jonathan Morgan, MSIVLake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine-Bradenton The provision of local and regional anesthesia is a core part of emergency medicine. Toxicity as a result of the administration of local anesthetics is exceedingly rare, but it does occur, and may even be more common than malignant hyperthermia.[1] […]
• Hepatic Encephalopathy Meets the ED

  Image credit: Tareq Salahuddin This post was peer reviewed.Click to learn more. Author: Alfred Morrobel, MS3Medical StudentUniversidad Iberoamericana Introduction & Pathophysiology Hepatic encephalopathy (HE), also known as portosystemic encephalopathy, is a potentially deadly complication of chronic liver failure. HE is commonly caused by liver failure due to cirrhosis, but there are non-cirrhotic causes as well. Cirrhosis […]
• Save a Life: Know the Precious P’s of Rapid Sequence Intubation

  Photo: Wikimedia Commons Author: Valery Victoria Rivas Cuesta, MSVIMedical StudentUniversidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) School of Medicine An emergency physician’s failure to secure the airway can rapidly lead to death or disability. In the emergency setting, patients are assumed to have a full stomach and be at risk for aspiration. Often, rapid-sequence intubation (RSI) represents the preferred […]
• Why Will This Baby Not Stop Crying?

  Image Credit: Flickr, Photo by Tatiana Vdb Author: Josh Bowers, DO Emergency Medicine Resident Adena Regional Medical Center This post was peer reviewed.Click to learn more. It is 3:00 am and a mother brings in her crying infant. The mother seems to be at a loss and states: “Nothing I do will make him stop […]
• Heat Stroke

  Author: Teng Lu, MD Emergency Medicine Resident Stanford-Kaiser Emergency Medicine Residency This post was peer reviewed.Click to learn more. Case: It’s summer in the South Bay, California area, with temperatures averaging more than 80 °F. An elderly gentleman was brought in by emergency medical services (EMS) for altered mental status and hyperthermia. He was found […]
• ACE-Inhibitor Induced Angioedema

  Author: Kaylinn Dokken, MSIIIMedical StudentWestern University of Health Sciences This post was peer reviewed.Click to learn more. ACE inhibitor (ACEi) induced angioedema is a potentially life-threatening complication of a very common class of medications, and is something every emergency physician should be prepared to manage. I personally witnessed three cases on a recent ICU rotation, […]
• Emergency Contraception in the Emergency Department

  Author: Matthew Rosen, MSIVMedical Student  Georgetown School of Medicine This post was peer reviewed.Click to learn more. Between the years 2006 and 2010 11% of women reported using emergency contraception at some point in their life; of those, 59% used emergency contraception once and almost a quarter used it twice.[2] Emergency contraception is any contraceptive […]
• Warfarin and Bridging – A Conundrum

  Author: Meaghan Mercer, DOEmergency Medicine ResidentUniversity of Nevada School of MedicineAAEM/RSA Immediate Past President This post was peer reviewed.Click to learn more. The following blog post appeared initially at www.lasvegasemr.com/foam-blog and is reproduced with the permission of the author. Case: A 40-year-old female presents to the emergency department with a chief complaint of three days […]
• In-Flight Emergencies

  Author: Kenneth Young, MDEmergency Medicine ResidentUniversity of Chicago This post was peer reviewed.Click to learn more. Hearing the words “Is there a doctor on the plane?” may strike fear or excitement into your heart as an emergency physician (or a welcome feeling of relief as you squeeze out of a cramped middle seat). What are […]
• Management of Suicide Attempts in the Emergency Department

  Photo Credit: Pixabay Author: Felix Matos Padilla, MSVMedical StudentUniversidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) School of Medicine This post was peer reviewed.Click to learn more. Suicide is by far the most common cause of premature death among patients with major mood and psychotic disorders.[1] Attempted suicide is defined as a nonfatal self-inflicted destructive act with the explicit or […]

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