Did you know that the ALiEMU learning management platform has courses in addition to the AIR Series? We just published the third installment of the pediatric point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) series, which focuses on peripheral IV access using ultrasonography. Do you use the traditional transverse, transverse with dynamic needle tip visualization, or longitudinal ultrasound technique?
Our organization has always been a champion and fan of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) research collaborative. We jointly worked on designing their official Head Injury Decision Tool found printed in various emergency departments around the country, featured several PECARN authors on our ALiEM podcast, and provide summaries of their 147-and-growing list of publications in our P3 app. So it follows that we are incredibly honored and thrilled to announce our Twitter collaboration. We will be helping to run their Twitter account. Join @PECARNteam and keep current on their growing list of publications, their clinical take-home points, and even insights from the authors themselves.
A 15 year-old male presents to the emergency department with left knee pain and swelling after jumping while attempting to dunk a basketball. You obtain a knee x-ray (image 1 courtesy of Mark Hopkins, MD). What is your diagnosis? What patient population is at risk for this injury? What other injuries occur in this anatomical location? What is your emergency department management?
A 14 year old girl presenting from Mexicali with altered mental status. Her mother reports a rash about a week ago following a tick bite. She had been going to school until 4 days ago when she became very fatigued with associated vomiting, diarrhea, tactile fevers, and headache. She subsequently collapsed at home today and was difficult to arouse which prompted EMS activation. Her mother denies any prior complaint of neck stiffness, shortness of breath, cough, hematemesis, or hematochezia.
You are just starting out your mid-January evening shift, and you go to the room of an 8-month old male with nasal congestion. He is afebrile, and mildly tachycardic, but his lung exam is fairly benign and he’s breathing easily without retractions. You can clearly see he has congestion. You instruct the parents to use saline irrigation and then nasal suctioning to clear the congestion as needed, and they say, “How can we do this if our child struggles? Won’t we just end up with a wet, angry, and congested child?”
Did you know that many of the landmark pediatric emergency medicine (EM) studies come from the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) collaborative? It works to address the challenging pediatric questions that only multicenter studies can. In this blog post, we highlight PECARN’s goal to translate, disseminate, and implement evidence to all providers of emergent and urgent care for pediatric patients.
A 3-year-old Hispanic female with no significant past medical or surgical history presents to the Emergency Department with her mother for a 3 day history of crampy abdominal pain, intermittent bloody diarrhea and fever. There has been no recent travel, admissions, or antibiotic use. Her older sister reports similar symptoms, which have resolved. The patient saw her pediatrician the day prior, who recommended supportive care including oral rehydration.
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