An 84-year old woman presents to your ED with a traumatic, left-sided posterior hip dislocation. You need to reduce the hip. But how should you sedate her? Procedural sedation is an important component of ED care. It allows us to more comfortably perform otherwise painful procedures such as fracture or dislocation reductions, endoscopies, large laceration repairs, and I&Ds. How safe is procedural sedation in older adults?
I love when complex medication questions come across my desk from folks like Drs. Amal Mattu, Rob Orman, Mike Winters, and Haney Mallemat (just to name a few). This week I received one from Dr. Scott Weingart that someone had sent to him. This paramedic was reviewing his anaphylaxis protocol with some new medics and providers. They asked a challenging question regarding a “pearl” they learned in which half-dose epinephrine should be administered in anaphylactic patients on beta-blockers. Patients on beta-blockers do have an increased risk for anaphylaxis, so there is a chance you’ll see a case just like this at some point.
Imagine a consult service located IN the ED. The consultants are some of the friendliest people you’ve met and are there to help you. They tirelessly go out of their way to guide you through hospital protocols, help you with treatments, keep a close eye on your work, and ensure that you and your patients stay out of trouble. Not only are these consultants helpful to you, but also your residents, mid-levels, nurses, and the admitting teams. Everything they know, they teach you – and some are very active in FOAMed and emergency medicine research.
Rob Bryant, MD (@RobJBryant13), Amie Hatch, PharmD, BCPS (@Amie_EMPharmD), and Jeremy Bair, PharmD (@bairpharm) from Intermountain Healthcare in Utah have created and adopted a fantastic medication reference card which is used by physicians and nurses in the Emergency Department. The medications were chosen because they are often prone to dosing errors and require time-sensitive ordering. They generously offered to share this incredibly compact resource for free to the Emergency Medicine community as a PV card. If you see them, give them a high-five.
Intentional overdose patients are notorious for giving inaccurate histories. “I took 14 tablets of this and 8 capsules of that. No, wait. It was 3 tablets of this and a handful of capsules of that… This happened about 2 hours ago. Actually, I think it was last night.” Round and round the merry-go-round we go.
The complications of alcohol use can be subtle in older adults, and the effects of alcohol are often incorrectly attributed to aging. Because of its under-recognition, the barriers to screening, and the many subtle ways in which it can present, some have suggested that alcohol misuse has replaced syphilis as the “great masquerader”. If you don’t think alcohol misuse is a problem among older adults in your ED, it may be because it has been hidden in plain sight.
The incidence of critical illness in the ED is rising, with greater than 1 million ED patients requiring emergent resuscitation each year. In addition to definitive airway management, hemodynamic support is among the most important life-saving interventions implemented by emergency physicians. When a patient develops persistent hypotension, what is your approach to choosing the right vasopressor medication for hemodynamic support?
Persistent hypotension results in impaired tissue perfusion and is often a late and ominous indication of decompensated shock. Correction of persistent hypotension is imperative, often requiring vasopressors and inotropes. When considering an agent for hemodynamic support, the following checklist can guide your choice: 1–4
Identifying the cause of the hypotension will allow you to select an agent targeted to the source of the problem. Causes of hypotension include hypovolemia, impaired vascular tone, impaired pump function, or some combination of these problems.
Initial management of the hypotensive patient should target optimizing intravascular volume prior to initiating a vasoactive medication. Vasopressors or inotropes cannot improve malperfusion secondary to isolated hypovolemia (such as hemorrhage, gastrointestinal bleeding or severe dehydration), and use of these agents prior to volume resuscitation can exacerbate existing metabolic derangements. Unrelated conditions that impair preload or cardiac output, including tension pneumothorax and pericardial tamponade, should also be considered prior to initiating vasoactive therapy.
Selecting an agent for hemodynamic support is analogous to choosing an antibiotic for infection. You are best guided by matching medication activity to the underlying pathology of the illness.
Side effects of vasoactive medications are related both to the direct mechanism of action of the agent, as well as the compensatory mechanisms precipitated by them. Concerning side effects of inotropes include dysrhythmias and increased myocardial oxygen demand, whereas vasopressors can cause undesired limitations in blood flow to the gut and kidneys.
| Agent | Primary Receptor | Primary Impact | Potential side effect | Prototypical clinical scenario |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phenylephrine | α1 | Increased SVR | Reflexive decreased HR | Neurogenic shock |
| Vasopressin | V | Increased SVR | Decreased splanchnic flow | Adjunct for septic shock |
| Dobutamine | β1, β2 | Increased inotropy | Transient decreases in SVR (β2 agonsim) | Cardiogenic shock from late-stage heart failure |
| Dopamine (low-dose) | D, β1 | Increased inotropy and heart rate | Tachydysrhythmias | Cardiogenic shock, particularly if bradycardic |
| Epinephrine | α1, α2, β1, β2 | Increased SVR and inotropy | Tachydysrhythmias and decreased splanchnic flow | Anaphylaxis |
| Norepinephrine | α1, α2, β1>> β2* | Increased SVR and inotropy | Decreased splanchnic and renal flow | Septic shock |
| Dopamine (high-dose) | D, α1, β1>> β2* | Increased SVR and inotropy | Tachydysrhythmias and decreased splanchnic/renal flow | Bradycardic cardiovascular collapse |
| * Controversial whether norepinephrine and high-dose dopamine have any β2 effects. If any, it is likely very low. | ||||
The majority of evidence comparing pressors head-to-head has been done in patients with septic shock; the largest amount of data has compared high-dose dopamine to norephinephrine. Based on this data, norepinephrine has been associated with lower incidence arrythmias and improved mortality when compared to dopamine.
Epinephrine has been compared with several other regimens both in septic shock and undifferentiated shock. When epinephrine was compared to norepinephrine and dobutamine, all of the agents were equally effective in achieving hemodynamic goals, though epinephrine was associated with increased incidence of tachydysrhythmias and prolonged metabolic derangement when compared to other agents. There was no difference in mortality. Robust data comparing other similar agents in other disease processes are lacking.
References