Medical Category: Infectious Disease

Take Home Points Emergency medicine revolves around the differential diagnosis History and physical exam should significantly narrow your differential diagnosis Have an idea of what specific diagnoses are being ruled out when ordering diagnostic tests Always consider the most life-threatening and …

Take Home Points Be prepared to do everything with these cases, if they can’t provide information, dive into their medication list, history, contact whoever you have to to get more information Keep differentials wide – then approach these cases with …

Take Home Points Look for the red flags – hypotension, environmental exposures, medications (SS, NMS), SIRS/qSOFA criteria Be on the lookout for neutropenic fever – isolate patients, administer abx early, and admit Sepsis definition is changing all the time – …

Take Home Points Approach leg pain with the seconds, minutes, hours mindset – think about acute limb ischemia, compartment syndrome, and necrotizing fasciitis Do a thorough physical exam – get their shoes and socks off – you will find crazy …

Take Home Points Ask about the red flags: cancer, fever, IVDA, FND, point tenderness, saddle/perianal anesthesia, trauma, urinary retention, bowel incontinence, weight loss Most don’t need XR’s – set this expectation and advise against bed rest Consider XR’s: h/o cancer, …