AIR Series: Renal/Genitourinary (2017)
Welcome to the Renal/GU Module! After carefully reviewing all relevant posts from the top 50 sites of the Social Media Index, the ALiEM AIR Team is proud to present the highest quality Renal/GU content. Below we have listed our selection of the 13 highest quality blog posts within the past 12 months (as of May 2017) related to Renal/GU emergencies, curated and approved for residency training by the AIR Series Board. We identified 3 AIRs and 10 Honorable Mentions. We recommend programs give 4 hours (about 20 minutes per article) of III credit for this module. As of June 2017, over 125 residency programs are using the AIR series – that’s over 1,200 residents completing at least one module in the 2016-2017 academic year!
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Wound irrigation is arguably one of the most important steps in closing a laceration, because all lacerations should be considered to be contaminated. Irrigation is considered the foundation in preventing infection. A common way to cleanse a wound is to irrigate a wound using a 20 cc syringe, angiocatheter, and splash protector. To achieve 500 cc of irrigation, however, it would require 25 syringe refills! Is there a better, cost-effective alternative?
The NIH Stroke Scale is used to assess the severity of a suspected stroke. It includes 11 neurologic exam components that can be quickly performed at the bedside. The second component of the NIH Stroke Scale is testing of voluntary horizontal eye movements, a.k.a., “best gaze”.
Pelvic trauma frequently is associated with other injuries from the high force required to break the pelvis. Management is focused on stabilizing the pelvis and stopping the bleeding. Due to other injuries requiring emergent surgical stabilization, pelvic trauma is primarily managed surgically with pre-peritoneal packing and external fixation, followed by angioembolization for continued bleeding. Emergency physicians must quickly resuscitate patients while gathering vital information to direct the correct definitive bleeding control strategy. New endovascular techniques such as 
After a STEMI activation from the field on Monday morning, the cardiac catheterization team scoops the patient away shortly after the paramedics arrive in the Emergency Department (ED). “Well that was a smooth and seamless resuscitation. The patient was barely in the ED for more than 15 minutes,” you think to yourself. You diligently complete your critical care documentation, noting 20 minutes of critical care time, before seeing your next patient. A few weeks later the chart is bounced back and noted as an erroneous documentation of critical care time. The coding department notifies you that the case will be billed as a Level 3 visit (E/M code #99283). Why is that the case?