If a patient is unconscious, unable to swallow, or oral medications are slow to take effect, it can be difficult to administer medication. An intravenous (IV) injection or infusion is a commonly used solution in such cases. Through the IV…
Read More
If a patient’s airway is compromised during a life-threatening situation, prompt and effective intervention is crucial. This includes front-of-neck access (FONA) emergency airway, or cricothyroidotomy. Also known as cricothyrotomy, it is a specialized procedure that creates emergency access to the…
Read More
Awake fiberoptic intubation can be an effective solution in securing a patient’s airway due to difficult airway and in cases where conventional intubation is not an option. A difficult airway refers to a clinical situation whereby a healthcare provider faces…
Read More
More Articles – Chest Tube, Emergency Procedures, FAST Exam, Featured, King Tube, Medical General, RUSH Exam
Injury causes over 150,000 deaths per year in the U.S. and over 5 million worldwide. Around 80% of these traumatic injuries are blunt, with incidences of fatality secondary to hypovolemic shock and intraperitoneal bleeds. Fatalities can be prevented if professionals…
Read More
More Articles – Arterial line, Central line, Emergency Procedures, Endotracheal Intubation, FAST Exam, Featured, Lumbar Puncture, Medical General, Paracentesis, Procedural Sedation, Thoracentesis
More Tags – emergency medicine PA
Delays to hospital inpatient admission in excess of five hours from arrival at an Emergency Department (ED) lead to a mortality rate of 8.71%. This increases by another 8% in cases where admission is delayed beyond six to eight hours. …
Read More
POCUS stands for Point of Care Ultrasound. It refers to the use of portable ultrasound machines at a patient’s bedside or point of care to help diagnose and manage medical conditions. POCUS is often used in emergency and critical care…
Read More
For procedures involving lumbar punctures , sonographically guided lumbar punctures (SGLPs) have a higher propensity of being chosen when dealing with obese patients. This is based on findings of a randomized controlled trial conducted in 2007. The main takeaway from…
Read More
For decades the mantra for procedural education in medicine has been “see one-do one-teach one”. Those of us who learned bedside procedures and point-of-care ultrasound by this model understand that this approach does not optimize safe and competent performance. At…
Read More
More Tags – antibiotic stewardship, antibiotics, Arterial Line, central line, featured, sepsis, sepsis management, septic shock
Timely administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics in septic patients saves lives. Though this has been demonstrated in hundreds of clinical investigations over the last few decades, antibiotics remain the most controversial topic in the management of severe sepsis and septic shock. …
Read More
More Articles – Cardiovascular diseases, Central line, Emergency Procedures, Featured, Intraosseous line, medical procedures
More Tags – EZ-IO, featured, HPC updates, intraosseous drill, intraosseous line, io line, Vascular access
Intraosseous line use has increased significantly since the advent of the battery powered intraosseous drill. In surveying providers at courses over the years, we have seen a steady rise in the number of providers with access to the intraosseous drill. …
Read More
Does Simulation Based Training Improve Central Line Success Rates? Simulation-based procedural training has become increasingly popular in academic medical centers and among medical trainees. Limited data has suggested that simulation based training improves success rates and safety, but evidence has…
Read More
More Articles – Emergency Procedures, Events, Featured Procedure, medical procedures, Paracentesis, RUSH Exam
Rapid Ultrasonography in Shock: Is this really useful? Caring for patients with undifferentiated hypotension, causes anxiety for most health care providers. This is natural. Fear, however, must not lead to hesitation or poor decision-making. Therapies chosen early in shock disproportionately…
Read More
Point-of-care ultrasound is one of the most rapidly evolving areas of medicine. In addition to becoming the “stethoscope of the future” for bedside diagnostic evaluations, ultrasound has improved the safety and efficiency of a wide range of procedures. The use…
Read More
In residency, I spent a great deal of time at the bedside assessing for shifting dullness in patients who may have had ascites. Today, when I ask residents about shifting dullness, I often get blank stares. “Why would I do…
Read More
As a third year medical student at a busy trauma center, one of my jobs was to hold a bag of saline connected to the trauma victim’s abdomen and throw the bag to the ground when it emptied. While I…
Read More