1 Oct 2018

October 1, 2018

Written by REBEL EM
Background: POCUS has become a powerful tool in the evaluation of critically ill patients in the ED.  However, in patients with cardiac arrest, the use of POCUS has been shown to significantly increase the duration of pauses.  This is concerning as high quality CPR with minimal interruptions is one of the keys to maximizing ROSC and survival with good neurologic outcomes. Recently, I had the chance to interview the lead author of the Cardiac Arrest Sonographic Assessment (CASA Exam) on REBEL Cast Ep 57 and on that episode we discussed a follow up study, which has finally been published in Resuscitation 2018.
Medical Categories: Resuscitation
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27 Sep 2018

September 27, 2018

Written by REBEL Cast

Background:There is a lack of high quality RCTs  investigating optimal airway management in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).  The majority of evidence comes from observational studies and expert opinion. The observational trials have consistently favored basic airway management (i.e. BVM) over tracheal intubation [3]. Supraglottic airway(SGA) devices offer an alternative advanced airway management technique to endotracheal intubation (ETI) during OHCA. SGA devices may offer an advantage over ETI as they are simpler and faster to place.  Additionally, proficiency  with SGAs requires less training and ongoing practice. Although there have been several recent studies published on airway management in OHCA, this post/podcast will focus on the recently published AIRWAYS-2 trial.

Medical Categories: Resuscitation
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22 Sep 2018

September 22, 2018

Written by REBEL EM
This past week, one hundred clinicians went back to work inspired. They were reinvigorated, motivated and full of knowledge.  They were the delegates, faculty and volunteers of #resusTO. This inaugural event (hopefully) laid the groundwork for many more to come as it was a success by any measure. ResusTO, the brain child of human factors guru and EM doc Chris Hicks, who along with the organizing committee of Andrew Petrosoniak, Jesse Spurr and Kari White, and a plethora of volunteers, orchestrated a human performance, education and simulation extravaganza! The conference held in Toronto, Canada sept 13th– 14th, 2018, was a special conference for so many reasons and you could feel it the moment you stepped up to the registration desk and received your name tag that noted, “Awesome human delegate.”
Medical Categories: Resuscitation
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13 Sep 2018

September 13, 2018

Written by REBEL EM

Warning: Limited Published Evidence on this Topic

You have just intubated a 4 year old with sepsis from a bad pneumonia. Post intubation BP is 70 systolic, while waiting for the epinephrine (adrenaline) infusion to come up from pharmacy you watch the BP decline into the 60 systolic range and start to use fluids to resuscitate. You are an accomplished adult resuscitationist, and are comfortable mixing, and pushing push dose epi in your adult patients. The following questions arise as you consider mixing a batch of push dose epi:
  • How much push dose epinephrine should you give this septic 4 year old?
  • Do pediatric patients need more or less epi when given in push dose format?
  • How do some pediatric intensivists and pediatric emergency physicians manage this problem?
Medical Categories: Pediatrics, Resuscitation
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10 Sep 2018

September 10, 2018

Written by REBEL EM
During a busy resuscitation it behooves the ED resuscitationist to avoid ordering therapies that have no clear benefit to their patients. Our nurses are overburdened, and adding interventions ‘just to be safe’ or ‘because we always do it’ is a great way to overwhelm our nursing colleagues. Bicarb administration is a contentious issue and many clinicians consider its use to fall firmly into the no-benefit camp, even when used in the management of severe metabolic acidosis. There have been no studies to date evaluating clinical outcomes  with the use of  sodium bicarbonate infusion therapy for severe metabolic acidemia, until now.  This post is a review of the recently published BICAR-ICU trial
Medical Categories: Resuscitation
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