The Importance of the RUG

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The Importance of the RUG

It is early on in your residency training, when you receive sign-out of a patient who was involved in an MVC with multiple injuries including a stable pelvic injury. The patient, a middle-aged male, has not voided three hours into his visit and there is no mention of any obvious genital trauma.  He has had a negative FAST exam in addition to the rest of your primary and secondary assessment. The patient mentions to the nurse that he is trying to urinate but cannot void and has some discomfort. The bladder scan shows that the patient has about 500cc of urine and when the nurse goes to place a urinary catheter she pauses as she sees what appears to be dried blood at the urethral opening. After reassessing the patient who is still hemodynamically stable with normal mentation, his findings are discussed with Urology who recommend getting a retrograde urethrogram prior to any additional procedures. 

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Grand Rounds Recap 3.14.18

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Grand Rounds Recap 3.14.18

This week's Grand Rounds opened with Dr. Curry discussing the paucity of literature on double defibrillation in VF. Dr. Mand then led small group discussions about the clinical utility of the pelvic xray. This was followed by Dr. Kreitzer expertly identifying incomplete Brown-Sequard Syndrome in Dr. Banning's CPC. Dr. Liebman discussed an interesting presentation of meningitis in a pediatric patient. Finally, our PEM colleagues led case based presentations of pediatric DKA, cat scratch disease, and a simulation featuring a patient in hypothermic cardiac arrest.  

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Back to Basics: Pelvic XRays

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Back to Basics: Pelvic XRays

Pelvic Xrays are a key component of trauma, fractures and dislocations seen every day in the ED, but when is the last time you went back over the anatomy and radiographic tips and tricks of the pelvic radiograph? Join Dr. Mand's thorough break down of this commonly used ED diagnostic - the Pelvic XR.

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Who Gets a Pelvic Binder? Lessons from the #HEMS #FOAMed World

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Who Gets a Pelvic Binder? Lessons from the #HEMS #FOAMed World

In our most recent post in the Air Care & Mobile Care Online Flight Physician Orientation, we talked about pelvic binding devices.  As we noted, there's generally a paucity of evidence for or against the use of a pelvic binding device in blunt trauma patients.  There are no hard and fast indications for the use of these devices.  Whenever there is a lack of evidence for a particular treatment, we find ourselves looking to experts in the field for their experience and practice patterns.  To that end, I asked some of of the #HEMS #FOAMed community to weigh in on the question and tell us their practice pattern

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Application of Pelvic Binders

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Application of Pelvic Binders

As we mentioned in the podcast that accompanied our most recent post, an injury that is critical to identify in blunt trauma yet easy to miss or forget is pelvic fractures and pelvic trauma.  Significant injuries occurring to the pelvic ring usually involved high mechanisms of injury such as high speed MVCs, motorcycle crashes, pedestrian struck, and falls from significant height.  Pelvic fractures can be associated with a significant amount of bleeding, hypotension, and increased mortality.  Mortality for all trauma patients with pelvic trauma ranges from 5-30%.  If there is associated hypotension, mortality rises to 10-42%

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