Medical Category: Thoracic and Respiratory

Background: The overall mortality and case-fatality rate for pulmonary embolism (PE) are decreasing. Yet reporting is increasing, suggesting we are overdiagnosing PE. Furthermore, management with anticoagulation is not entirely benign and places a potential risk of bleeding upon the patient. …

‘He remembered waking up with someone pulling very hard on his injured leg, which caused severe pain. He thinks he was in the ED. The patient said this was the worst pain he had every had and it was unbearable, …

Background: Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) are commonly seen in the ED. AECOPD is characterized by a change in the patient’s baseline dyspnea, cough or sputum purulence. While there are a number of causes for exacerbations, infectious …

Background: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians were looking for practical, widely available, and low-cost interventions to help patients with hypoxemia.  One of those interventions was awake prone positioning.  Potential mechanisms of benefit in awake proning include more uniform distribution …

Background: Optimal management of pneumothorax and hemothorax with chest thoracostomy has been widely debated over the last decade.  We no longer question the utility of pigtail catheters for pneumothorax and now ask whether a catheter has to be placed at …