AIR Series: Cardiology Module, Part 1 (2015)

There is a phenomenal amount of cardiology content in the FOAMsphere. Accordingly, the CORD testing schedule and our cardiology module has been divided into two parts – Part 1 (ACS) and Part 2 (CHF, Vascular Dissection, and Other). Below we have listed our selection of the 14 highest quality blog posts within the past 12 months (as of July 2015) related to acute coronary syndromes, curated and approved for residency training by the AIR Series Board. In this module we have 6 AIRs and 8 Honorable Mentions. We strive for comprehensiveness by selecting from a broad spectrum of blogs from the top 50 listing per the Social Media Index.

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PEM Pearls: Migraine Treatment for Pediatric EM Patients

migraine treatment for pediatric em patients © Can Stock Photo / SergiyNYou are working your evening shift at the pediatrics emergency department, and you walk into a darkened patient room with a distressed mother and her otherwise healthy 10-year old son who is curled in a ball, holding his head and crying. Her mother tells you that the around-the-clock ibuprofen has barely touched his 2-day headache.

After determining that your patient has no neurologic deficits and that this is most likely a primary headache, what can you do to break his symptoms?

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Trick of the Trade: Ear foreign body removal with modified suction setup

popcorn-kernelsA 5 year old boy comes in who has stuck a small unpopped popcorn kernel into each ear. My resident and I discuss  different methods to try to get it out including an ear curette, tissue glue, suction, and calling the ear-nose-throat (ENT) specialist. The ear curette won’t work to get around and the kernels are smooth and hard to grasp and might cause trauma with swelling or bleeding. We quickly excluded irrigation because the kernel might swell more. Another method considered was a drop of tissue adhesive onto a q-tip stick to adhere onto the foreign body (FB) for extraction. We were a little leary of this however for fear of gluing the FB to the ear canal and suffering the wrath of ENT.

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By |2020-03-01T18:14:04-08:00Aug 25, 2015|ENT, Tricks of the Trade|

Ultrasound For The Win! Case – 76M with Right-Sided Vision Loss #US4TW

Welcome to another ultrasound-based case, part of the “Ultrasound For The Win!” (#US4TW) Case Series. In this case series, we focus on a real clinical case where bedside ultrasound changed the management or aided in the diagnosis. In this case, a 76-year-old man presents with sudden-onset right-sided vision loss.

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Utility of Pre-4-Hour Acetaminophen Levels in Acute Overdose

Utility of Pre-4-Hour Acetaminophen LevelsCase Presentation: A 37 y/o woman presents to the ED with altered mental status. The vital signs are within normal limits. The history is provided by a friend who states that the patient was normal 2 hours ago when they were together. When she returned home, she found the patient in this state next to an empty bottle of acetaminophen (APAP) and 5 empty beer cans. A recent loss in the family has led to some depression in the last few weeks. A battery of labs are sent off including a ‘tox panel’ consisting of serum EtOH, salicylate, and APAP levels. The presumed time of ingestion is 2 hours prior to presentation.

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PV Card: Palliative Care Screening in the Emergency Department

Palliative Care canstockphoto3674078What is Palliative Care? It is specialized medical care focusing on improving the care and quality of life for patients with advanced illness by decreasing suffering. It can be delivered concurrently with curative care. Early identification of patients who are likely to benefit is key. How do you decide whether your patient could benefit from a palliative care consult?

 

Hot off the presses

We just published in Academic Emergency Medicine a validated screening tool to identify ED patients who would benefit from palliative care [PubMed abstract].1 In an effort to accelerate knowledge dissemination, the checklist is reproduced here in PV card form. Be sure to check out the thoughtful expert peer review below by Dr. Kate Aberger, who is the chair of the ACEP Palliative Care Section.

PV Card: Palliative Care Screening Tool


Adapted from 1–3

(c) Can Stock Photo

  1. George N, Barrett N, McPeake L, Goett R, Anderson K, Baird J. Content Validation of a Novel Screening Tool to Identify Emergency Department Patients With Significant Palliative Care Needs. Acad Emerg Med. 2015;22(7):823-837. [PubMed]
  2. Grudzen C, Richardson L, Morrison M, Cho E, Morrison R. Palliative care needs of seriously ill, older adults presenting to the emergency department. Acad Emerg Med. 2010;17(11):1253-1257. [PubMed]
  3. Wu F, Newman J, Lasher A, Brody A. Effects of initiating palliative care consultation in the emergency department on inpatient length of stay. J Palliat Med. 2013;16(11):1362-1367. [PubMed]
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