With recent discussion about the potential closing of California Poison Control Centers due to budget cuts, I suddenly became shockingly aware of how much Emergency Departments depend on these centers for assistance. They are always so knowledgeable and helpful in managing various ingestions and poisonings.
When evaluating a patient with a sore throat and “hot potato voice,” peritonsillar abscess (PTA) is at the top of the differential diagnosis list. As with all abscesses, the definitive treatment involves drainage of pus. This can be done either by incision and drainage or, more commonly, by needle aspiration.
I’m still working on my 2009 ACEP Scientific Assembly handout for the LLSA exam test prep session (which were actually due yesterday!). Even though the conference isn’t until mid-October, the handouts are always due a few months earlier. And every year, it sneaks up on me! One of the articles I’m reviewing is about the risks of CT irradiation, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007.
Given all the recent brouhaha around propofol and Michael Jackson, I thought I would review the 2007 Annals of EM Clinical Practice Advisory paper on the use of propofol in the Emergency Department for procedural sedation. This is one of the 2009 Lifelong Learning Self-Assessment (LLSA) articles. Each year EM-board certified physicians are tested on 20 pre-selected LLSA articles to maintain eligibility for re-certification.
This is a list of pearls and pitfalls that I share with the medical students and interns to whom I teach suturing and wound closure techniques. I can’t tell you how many pigs feet I have seen in my lifetime. Feel free to use and add to the list.