2 Feb 2015

February 2, 2015

Written by REBEL EM
Background: Hyperkalemia is the most common electrolyte disorder seen in the Emergency Department and treatment of hyperkalemia is core knowledge of EM training for interns and focuses on:
1) Stabilization of cardiac myocytes with calcium salts
2) Temporary shifting of potassium into cells (insulin, beta agonists, normal saline,
      magnesium, sodium bicarbonate)
3) Removal of potassium from the body (i.e. loop diuretics, cathartics)
4) Definitive Treatment (i.e. Hemodyalisis)
Although there is still some debate on the first two areas (i.e. is there truly a role for sodium bicarbonate?) our focus will be on the removal part of the algorithm, specifically, is there a role for kayexalate?
Medical Categories: Endocrine, Metabolic, Fluid, and Electrolytes
1 Like
5 Jan 2015

January 5, 2015

Written by REBEL EM
Background: Streptococcal pharyngitis is a common presentation to primary care and Emergency Department physicians. Every year, 10 million patients in the United States are treated with antibiotics for pharyngitis. However, less than 10% of these patients actually have strep pharyngitis (Barnett 2013). Prescribing of antibiotics for these patients centers on three arguments:
  1. Antibiotics reduce symptomology
  2. Antibiotics reduce the rate of suppurative complications
  3. Antibiotics reduce the rate of non-suppurative complications (primarily Rheumatic Heart Disease).
So, do patients with strep throat need to be treated with antibiotics?
Medical Categories: Infectious Disease
0 Likes
7 Aug 2014

August 7, 2014

Written by REBEL EM
Renal colic is a common ED presentation. Rarely does a day go by that we don’t see a patient rocking and rolling in acute renal colic. Dan Firestone makes an impassioned argument against the use of CT scanning for diagnosis of renal colic so I won’t address that here. Once we make a diagnosis, our primary goal in the ED is pain relief. Then we turn our attention to disposition planning, follow up and outpatient medications. The majority (90%) of stones will pass spontaneously but it would be nice if we could:
  1. increase the passage rate
  2. shorten the time to passage.
This could potentially reduce ED revisits, reduce the number of invasive procedures and make happy patients. So does the use of tamsulosin in renal colic facilitate stone passage?
Medical Categories: Renal and Genitourinary
0 Likes
17 Jul 2014

July 17, 2014

Written by REBEL EM

Animal bites are a common cause of injury in the United States. About 4.5 million Americans/year (5% of all traumatic wounds in the ED) will sustain a bite injury. Dog bites compromise a majority of these wounds. The classic teaching is that dog bites should not be closed primarily and they should all be prophylactically treated with antibiotics. When dog bites become infected, Pasteurella species, specifically P. canis, are the most common pathogens. Amoxicillin-clavulanate (AKA “dog-mentin”) is the antibiotic of choice. It’s also important to keep in mind that Emergency Department repaired lacerations (not just dog bites but all comers) have a 3-7% infection rate. As usual, the dogma (pun intended) is based on minimal if any evidence. Additionally, there are some recent articles that are relevant to the discussion that should be discussed.

Medical Categories: Infectious Disease
3 Likes
en English
zh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanit Italianpt Portugueseru Russianes Spanishtr Turkish
0