A 45 year-old male presents with right thumb pain and deformity after falling off his bicycle. You obtain hand x-rays and see the following images. What is the most likely diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and management plan?
Figure 1. AP and oblique views of the hand. Author’s own images.
Welcome to Leg Day #5 of the SplintER Series. The focused history and physical ankle exam of the patient with an acute ankle injury is a crucial tool often overlooked in the Emergency Department (ED). Our hope is that after enough practice, you will be able to complete your ankle exam within 2 minutes! The key is to practice, practice, and practice some more.
A 9-year-old male with no past medical history, brought in by his mother to the ER with a new rash on his face and torso. The rash began 10 days ago. On the day he developed the rash, the patient noted swimming in a newly chlorinated outdoor pool. That same day he also played with freshly picked oranges and limes outdoors with his friends, having squeezed the juices onto his head and body. He developed a non-painful, non-pruritic, hyper-pigmented rash on his left cheek.
Over the course of 3 days, the patient and his family went on a trip to a local river, during which the rash evolved to scattered patches on his face and dorsum of his hands with an associated burning sensation exacerbated by contact with hot water or sunscreen. He received outpatient treated by a medical provider at day 3 for presumed infection with both oral and topical antibiotics. He completed the antibiotics, with worsening of his skin lesions. They have since formed blisters and affected his torso.
The patient never had any similar symptoms, or allergies. He had no sick contacts or travel outside the U.S. He denies any history of trauma, thermal burns, or arthropod exposure. The patient has not had fevers, respiratory symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms, or urinary symptoms.
According to the National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey, approximately 630,000 adults in the United States have cirrhosis of the liver, 69% of which are reportedly unaware of having liver disease. A diagnostic paracentesis is a simple procedure for identifying spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in cirrhotic patients with ascites. A just-in-time training (JITT) model incorporating low-fidelity equipment readily available in the ED can facilitate procedural teaching of the diagnostic paracentesis.
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A 48-year-old male presents with 2 weeks of severe right lower quadrant abdominal pain and inguinal pain. The patient had similar pain 2 weeks ago, was referred to a surgery clinic, but was lost to follow up. The pain has been progressively worsening over the last 2 days. It’s now severe, associated with nausea and vomiting, does not radiate, and it is worsened with coughing and sneezing. He also endorses polyuria for an unknown length of time. His last bowel movement was 3 days ago. He denies diarrhea, constipation, hematochezia, melena, dysuria, hematuria, or recent trauma.
A 65-year-old female without any significant past medical history presented to the emergency department with left eye pain and redness. She also reported a developing rash to left side of her face over the last 24 hours.
Welcome to the AIR Infectious Disease 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 online content related to infectious disease emergencies. 9 blog posts within the past 12 months (as of September 2019) met our standard of online excellence and were curated and approved for residency training by the AIR Series Board. We identified 1 AIR and 8 Honorable Mentions. We recommend programs give 4.5 hours (about 30 minutes per article) of III credit for this module.
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