Author: Jenny Beck-Esmay, MD

Background: Working in the emergency department means frequently performing painful procedures on patients, often we turn to procedural sedation to make these procedures more tolerable for patients, families and clinicians alike.  Ketamine is often used for this purpose, particularly in pediatrics, …

Background: This is a guest post from two of our friends all the way in Italy.  They have actually sent several revisions of this post as a way to help learners focus on different aspects of FOAMed.  One of the major …

Background: The assessment and management of the acute onset headache from the perspective of the emergency department is a point of contention and discussion commonly faced by emergency providers.  The Ottawa Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Rule is a clinical decision making instrument that …

Background: In 2002, the New England Journal of Medicine published two studies that changed the management of post-cardiac arrest patients by showing improved outcomes in patients treated with therapeutic hypothermia (32°C-34°C) for at least 24 hours. (Bernard 2002, Hypothermia 2002).  The …

Background: In patients with symptoms of pulmonary embolism (PE), we often turn to vital signs, including heart rate, respiratory rate and pulse oximetry, as part of our initial impression of the patient.  Before even considering further testing, such as d-dimer or …