14 Sep 2015

September 14, 2015

Written by REBEL EM
Background: In patients with cardiovascularly stable supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), the valsalva maneuver is recommended as an initial maneuver to help with cardioversion. The success rate of the valsalva maneuver alone is documented at 5 – 20%. The next option for patients who still remain in SVT is intravenous adenosine. Adenosine briefly stops all conduction through the AV node, which causes patients to feel a sense of doom or like they are about to die. Increasing venous return and vagal stimulation by laying patients supine and elevating their legs may increase the rate of conversion and is simple, safe, and cost effective.
Medical Categories: Cardiovascular
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7 Sep 2015

September 7, 2015

Written by REBEL Cast
Welcome to the September 2015 REBELCast, where Swami, Matt, and I are going to tackle a couple of topics in the world of Venous Thromboembolism (VTE). Seems like we are hearing more and more about VTE in terms of workup, management, etc. Lets face it, diagnosing someone with a pulmonary embolism (PE) is no longer as simple as checking a d-dimer or just doing a CT Pulmonary Angiogram.  There is so much more to it and to frustrate physicians even more there is so much research coming out on this topic alone, even I am having a hard time keeping up.  Swami, Matt, and I thought it might be good to tackle a couple of articles from he world of VTE that have implications for clinical practice and patient care. So with that introduction today we are going to specifically tackle:
  • Topic #1: Home Treatment of Low Risk Venous Thromboembolism with Rivaroxaban
  • Topic #2: RV Dilation on Bedside Echo Performed by ED Physicians
Medical Categories: Cardiovascular, Resuscitation
0 Likes
24 Aug 2015

August 24, 2015

Written by REBEL Prez
Recently, I just finished reading a book called Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.  This book is a game changer in the presentation world in my humble opinion.  If you are giving presentations at any level, this is a must read book.  Now I know that REBEL EM has traditionally been a clinical blog, but every once in a while we come across something that is just too good to not share. What I am going to try and do in this blog post is summarize some of the key messages of this book.  In the book the author basically breaks presentations down into 3 parts and applies principles from the art of Zen:
  • Restraint in Preparation
  • Simplicity in Design
  • Naturalness in Delivery
Prez Category: The Delivery, The Slides, The Story
3 Likes
17 Aug 2015

August 17, 2015

Written by REBEL Cast
Welcome to the August 2015 REBEL Cast, where Swami, Matt, and I are going to tackle a couple of topics. First topic: renal colic. Renal colic is a commonly seen condition encountered in emergency departments and the use of medical expulsive therapy (MET) is commonly recommended by our urology colleagues. Proponents of MET in the treatment of ureteric colic advocate for them due to their potential ability to increase stone passage, reduce pain medication use, and reduce urologic interventions. Second topic: pediatric weights. In pediatric resuscitations many of use the Broselow tape to predict weights for dosing of medications.  With the increasing weights in pediatric patients seen in developed countries around the world, does the commonly used Broselow tape accurately predict weights?   So with that introduction today we are going to specifically tackle:

Topic #1: MET for Renal Colic Topic #2: Use of the Broselow Tape to Estimate Pediatric Weights

Medical Categories: Pediatrics, Renal and Genitourinary
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3 Aug 2015

August 3, 2015

Written by REBEL Cast
Background: We know that cardiac arrest is a devastating disease and that it occurs in approximately 400,000 Americans each year. In the few patients who achieve return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survive past the pre-hospital stage, mortality rates range from 50 – 60% depending on which sources you read. Neurologic injury is the primary reason for mortality in cardiac arrest patients who do survive to hospital admission and while therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is now an established and recommended therapy to help improve survival and neurologic outcomes in cardiac arrest survivors, the mortality rate is still high in this population.   Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) accounts for the majority of cases of cardiac arrest in adults and some recent studies have shown that early cardiac catheterization (CC) and immediate percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are associated with improved survival following cardiac arrest. However, many of the patients included in these studies had ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). There is already a Class 1 recommendation for early CC & PCI in the setting of STEMI following cardiac arrest, but the data on early CC in comatose post-arrest patients without STEMI is very limited. Post-resuscitation electrocardiogram (ECG) is often unreliable and lack of ST-elevation has a poor sensitivity for the diagnosis of acute coronary occlusion. Recently the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) proposed and published a new consensus statement an algorithm to stratify cardiac arrest patients who are comatose for CC activation. As part of this algorithm non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) was added as an indication for CC activation. So with that introduction today on REBEL Cast we are going to specifically tackle:
  • Topic: Early Cardiac Catheterization in OHCA Survivors with Non-STEMI
Medical Categories: Cardiovascular, Resuscitation
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