1 Dec 2016

December 1, 2016

Written by REBEL EM
Background: Anyone who works in the Emergency Department has seen patients brought in by EMS or sent from the clinic with a chief complaint of “high blood sugar.”  Now, we are not talking about patients with diabetic ketoacidosis, but just simple hyperglycemia. This is a common complaint with no real consensus on optimal blood glucose levels before safe discharge.
Medical Categories: Endocrine, Metabolic, Fluid, and Electrolytes
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2 Nov 2015

November 2, 2015

Written by REBEL EM
Recently, I was asked to give a lecture to both my residents and nurses at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) on some common DKA myths. Now this topic was originally covered by my good friend Anand Swaminathan on multiple platforms and I did ask his permission to create this blogpost with the idea of improving patient care and wanted to express full disclosure of that fact. I specifically covered four common myths that I still see people doing in regards to DKA management:
  1. We should get ABGs instead of VBGs
  2. After Intravenous Fluids (IVF), Insulin is the Next Step
  3. Once pH <7.1, Patients Need Bicarbonate Therapy
  4. We Should Bolus Insulin before starting the infusion
Medical Categories: Endocrine, Metabolic, Fluid, and Electrolytes
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3 Sep 2015

September 3, 2015

Written by REBEL EM
You are working as an EM resident and have just evaluated a patient with a right long finger DIP joint dislocation. You perform a digital nerve block with 1% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine, and go to present to your attending before attempting the reduction. Your attending, on hearing about the epinephrine use goes berserk, and says “don’t you know that you shouldn’t use epi in fingers, noses, ears and toes?”. When confronted with this situation we all like to have a one stop valid literature review to produce that validates our practice. Several social media authors have weighed in on this topic, however blogs sometimes don’t cut it for those unfamiliar with the current quality of peer reviewed online content. The use of epinephrine in digital nerve blocks has been shown to increase duration of action for the anesthetic, and to allow the avoidance of bupivacaine, thereby decreasing the pain of the injection. (REBEL flashback)
Medical Categories: Trauma
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28 May 2015

May 28, 2015

Written by REBEL Crit
Background: Vasopressors are frequently used in critically ill patients with hemodynamic instability both in the emergency department (ED) as well as intensive care units (ICUs). Typically, vasopressors are given through central venous catheters (CVCs) as opposed to peripheral intravenous (PIV) access due to the concerns about adverse events (i.e. tissue ischemia/necrosis) associated with extravasation through PIVs. In a truly hypotensive, critically ill patient the use of a PIV to administer vasopressors will allow the medication to stabilize the patient sooner and reduce the time to hemodynamic stability. The requirement to start vasopressors through a CVC may delay administration of pressors. Also, performing the insertion of a CVC in a hypotensive patient in an emergency circumstance versus an elective circumstance may increase the risk of adverse events from the procedure itself (i.e. bacteremia, pneumothorax, arterial puncture). Finally, most of the evidence cited for avoiding PIV administration of pressors is a sparse collection of case studies and expert opinion.
Medical Categories: Resuscitation
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15 Mar 2015

March 15, 2015

Written by REBEL Crit
Recently, I wrote a post on the use of epinephrine in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and this triggered some interesting discussion on twitter. Are we at a point that we can just stop using epinephrine in OHCA?  Has anyone stopped actually using epinephrine in OHCA and if so, why or why not? The evidence seems to point to no "good" neurologic benefit over basic life support (BLS).  I would love to hear more peoples thoughts on this.
Medical Categories: Resuscitation
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