From the Blog
Visual Diagnosis: Neck mass and tongue elevation
By Ariel Bowman, MD What is causing this patient’s neck mass and tongue elevation? Case: A 30 year old man presents with a slow-growing neck mass present over the last month and mild respiratory distress, stating that he has had swelling under his tongue that’s been getting progressively worse. What’s your differential diagnosis for this […]
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RCE Rundown: Is this child dehydrated?
By Mary Cheffers, MD The background: Non-hemorrhagic hypovolemia is commonly classified as “mild” (3-5%), “moderate” (6-9%) and “severe” (>10%) The level of dehydration in children is important, since you can attempt to orally rehydrate those with mild dehydration, avoiding the pain and expense related to IV hydration, while undiagnosed severe dehydration may lead to morbidity […]
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Finger on the Pulse: Quick EM Education Resources
By David Hoffman, DO Hey Everyone, welcome back! In this post, we’re going to be focusing on two more exciting FOAM sites. They are: ShoulderDislocation.net EM in 5 ShoulderDislocation.net Heard of the Cunningham technique? Or confused by the plethora of shoulder relocation techniques and their eponyms? Kocher? Modified Milch? Zero Position? And what’s the deal […]
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5 Minute Toxicology Consult: Extrapyramidal Side Effects
By Abraham Flinders, MD Case: HPI: 25 yo female recently hospitalized for acute manic episode where she was started on haloperidol 10mg QHS now presents with trouble walking, trouble talking, drooling and rigidity. PE: Her vitals are normal except for a heart rate that jumps to 120 intermittently. She is alert and oriented x 4. […]
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What is the fragility index and how can it help us appraise medical literature?
Richard Bracken II, DO Critical appraisal of the latest in evidence-based practices is important to many emergency medicine physicians, but how can we quantify whether the conclusion of a study is a real result or simply chance? In the past, researchers have relied heavily on p-values to assess statistical significance, but all that may be […]
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Finding a Mentor
By Taku Taira MD One of the most common refrains in career development is to “Find a mentor.” It is one thing to understand the utility of a mentor, or to want one, but it is something entirely different to know how to go about finding one. Because it is neither intuitive nor easy, we […]
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Procedure Series: Chest Tube Thoracostomy
By Rafael Chavez MD CASE INTRO It is another busy Saturday night in the trauma bay. You get a call from EMS that they are bringing in a freeway driver in a rollover MVC that required a prolonged extrication. Upon arrival, he is GCS 14, HR 125, BP 109/75, RR 28, SpO2 95%. On primary […]
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Fellows Corner: Wilderness Medicine
By Dave Pomeranz, MD Hello all, token bearded Reno mountain dude here, Dave Pomeranz. I was asked to give some information on my fellowship in wilderness medicine. So here we go: Why would I ever do something as ridiculous as a Wilderness Medicine fellowship? First off, the reason to do a Wilderness fellowship is absolutely […]
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Finger on the Pulse: Med Ed Blogs
By David Hoffman DO Alright fellow FOAMers, this week we are highlighting a few excellent websites with an incredible amount of pertinent and free information. Both of these websites have some essential pearls of wisdom to glean. Additionally, we’ve summarized two recent blogs to emphasize the utility of these sites and keep us abreast of […]
Read More →Finger on the Pulse: Medical Education Starter Kit
By David Hoffman DO FOAM: Free Open Access Meducation Heard of it? Overwhelmed with resources? Not sure where to get started? This blog is for you. Mission Statement Our goal is to provide a filtered and concise list of free resources available online that can be easily accessed. The vision is that every month, this […]
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JAMA RCE Rundown: Community Acquired Pneumonia
By Mary Cheffers MD From JAMA’s Rational Clinical Exam: Does this patient have Community-Acquired Pneumonia? Summary This is an old article, but the workup of Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) in the ED has not changed significantly. The article sought to answer the question of whether a chest x-ray is necessary for a definite diagnosis in all […]
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Procedures Series: Emergency Cricothyroidotomy
By Rafael Chavez, MD A 23 yo male is brought into the resus booth by EMS with multiple GSWs to the chest and abdomen. He arrives hypotensive, tachycardic, GCS of 3, and is being bagged by EMS with an O2 sat of 89%. While your senior starts running the trauma, they ask you to intubate […]
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