ECG interpretation is one of the most important skills to master as an emergency physician, and its interpretation can be very complex and frustrating. ECG manifestations can be very subtle, and sometimes the earliest and only ECG change seen will be reciprocal changes alone. To further complicate this, many patients have the atypical symptoms of nausea/vomiting, weakness, or shortness of breath and not chest pain.
In Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), we learned that a carotid, femoral, and radial pulse correlates to a certain systolic blood pressure (SBP) in hypotensive trauma patients. Specifically ATLS stated:
Nasogastric lavage (NGL) seems to be a logical procedure in the evaluation of patients with suspected upper GI bleeding, but does the evidence support the logic? Most studies state that endoscopy should occur within 24 hours of presentation, but the optimal timing within the first 24 hours is unclear. Rebleeding is the greatest predictor of mortality, and these patients benefit from aggressive, early endoscopic hemostatic therapy and/or surgery. So what are the arguments for and against NGL?
Every year there are 6 million visits to the Emergency Department (ED) for chest pain, and approximately 2 million hospital admissions each year. This is approximately about 10% of ED visits and 25% of hospital admissions with 85% of these admissions receiving a diagnosis of a non-ischemic etiology to their chest pain (CP). This over triage has enormous economic implications for the US health care system estimated at $8 billion in annual costs.
As a physician and newcomer to FOAM, I am finding that I have learned a lot of myths and pearls that are not true as I matriculated through school. This has taught me that learning from textbooks may be great for board exams, but more importantly it is not optimal for patient care and has made me question a lot of different practices. We all want to know clinically relevant information that is evidence based and up to date that will make a difference in our care of patients. The purpose and goal of REBEL is to create a sustained change in beliefs, attitudes, and behavior through review of the best evidence available.
