Is Your Head Spinning? The Sudbury Vertigo Risk Score

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Is Your Head Spinning? The Sudbury Vertigo Risk Score

There is a wide variation in practice, particularly in obtaining neuro-imaging in patients presenting with vertigo. Many patients are imaged and subjected to a longer length of stay, and on the other side of the coin, some patients with serious pathology fall through the cracks. The authors of this study set out to create a risk score to apply to patients who present to the ED with vertigo which would identify the patients at risk for serious pathology (which they defined as stroke, TIA, vertebral artery dissection, or brain tumor).

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Grand Rounds Recap 1.26.22

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Grand Rounds Recap 1.26.22

This week, we started off with an excellent journal club led by Drs. Ijaz and Mullen discussing interventions aimed at improving access to primary care from the Emergency Department and then followed along with Drs. Ferreri and Skrobut as they battled out a case of mysterious altered mental status during the crowd favorite, CPC. Dr. Pulvino reminded us that not all rashes are simple through her case follow up and Dr. Gobble took us on a deep dive of the diagnosis and management of gastroparesis and cyclic vomiting syndrome. Finally, we closed out the day with lessons in nasal endoscopy and cricothyrotomy from the airway guru himself, Dr. Steven Carleton.

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Telling Tall Tales: Dogma in Emergency Medicine

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Telling Tall Tales: Dogma in Emergency Medicine

In our training and education as Emergency Medicine providers, we often come to accept certain practice patterns as fact. When these established “facts” come along with fantastical clinical claims (don’t give your corneal abrasion patients tetracaine, it’ll melt their corneas; don’t use lido with epi for digital blocks, their finger will fall off; don’t use beta-blockers in patients on cocaine, their BP will skyrocket due to unopposed alpha-effects), we should probably look to question their supporting evidence.

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Cricothyrotomy on HEMS

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Cricothyrotomy on HEMS

We train for it, we have a healthy fear of it, and we realize that having to perform one is not an admission of failure on our part. But, how often is a cricothyrotomy performed on HEMS. Dr. Andrew Cathers of University of Wisconsin Med Flight walks through a recently published paper on the topic.

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A Weakness in the HEART?

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A Weakness in the HEART?

In this month’s Journal Club Recap we take a look at some recently published literature about common heart related complaints in the ED. First, we look at the now nearly ubiquitously used HEART pathway. In a US population, do the benefits of decreased health care utilization sustain themselves to a year out of an index visit? Then we turn our attention to atrial fibrillation with RVR. Does the utility infielder of ED medications, Magnesium, actually help with more rapid rate control? And, should the results of a consensus panel sway us to treat A fib with RVR as an outpatient?

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Dealing with the Wheezes

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Dealing with the Wheezes

Asthma and COPD are 2 of the more common ailments responsible for patients presenting to an Emergency Department with complaints of shortness of breath.  Last week, we met as a residency and, led by Dr. Lauren Titone, Dr. Walker Plash, and Dr. Rob Thompson, discussed some newer literature for the treatment of these often intertwined conditions.  Take a listen to the podcast within to hear our thoughts and read the summary after the jump for the breakdown.

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A Crack in the Ice? An In-Depth Breakdown of the TTM Trial

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A Crack in the Ice? An In-Depth Breakdown of the TTM Trial

   Like many other Emergency Medicine residencies, we took the time in our last Journal Club to break down the Targeted Temperature Management Article.  There is tons out there in the #FOAMed space about this trial.  And, one of our 4th year residents, Dr. Trent Wray, took some extra time to break down the article in gory detail and put it into the context of the previously published literature.

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