Syncope as Easy as 1-2-3
A 66-year-old otherwise healthy man presents by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) after being found unconscious on the ground. On arrival to your emergency department, he is back to his baseline normal mental status and without complaints. His vital signs are within normal limits and his physical exam is unremarkable. Is it a syncope? What are the key features of his history and physical exam that should affect your medical decision making? What should this patient’s work-up entail?
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A patient presents to your ED with an all too common complaint – chest pain. After a focused history and physical exam, you have an extremely low clinical suspicion for thoracic aortic dissection, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, pneumothorax, pericarditis/myocarditis, and Boerhaave’s syndrome. When the labs (including a troponin), an ECG, and chest x-ray yield normal results, questions often arise. Can you discharge her with a single troponin if she is low risk? How do you define low risk? And lastly, does she need urgent provocative testing after discharge?
Welcome to the Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) Module! After carefully reviewing all relevant posts from the top 50 sites of the