Haldol, Ativan, and Versed… oh my.

In the Emergency Department, some patients present very acutely and aggressively agitated. This is usually the result of illicit drug use or a schizophrenic who hasn’t been taking medications (or both!). Fortunately, we have an arsenal of medications to help sedate the patient.

One study looked to answer the question of what single IM sedation agent is most effective, as measured by the shortest time to sedation and time to arousal.

PV Card: Chemical Sedation for Agitation

Adapted from [1]
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

Reference

1. Nobay F, Simon BC, Levitt MA, Dresden GM. A Prospective, Double-blind, Randomized Trial of Midazolam versus Haloperidol versus Lorazepam in the Chemical Restraint of Violent and Severely Agitated Patients. Academic Emergency Medicine. 2004;11(7):744-749. doi: 10.1197/j.aem.2003.06.015

A middle-age woman presents to the Emergency Department with altered mental status after having ingested a drug. Is it an opioid? Is it an antihistamine?

The key is to pay close attention to the vital signs. They are often the clue to the mystery. I found this great table from EM Clinics of North America by Dr. Timothy Erickson from 2007. I can’t imagine how long it took for him to create all these mnemonics. I’ll never remember these mnemonics, but they’re fun to read nonetheless.

PV Card: Toxidromes by Vital Signs

Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

From time to time, our patients need moderated and deep sedation in order to tolerate painful procedures such as joint reductions or incision and drainage procedures. There are many medications available to us including some newer ones such as Ketofol and Dexmedetomidine.

This week’s Paucis Verbis is a reference card to remind us of the importance of Airway Assessment and help us calculate the medication doses.

If you want to learn more about these medications and some strategies for different types of patients and procedures I recommend the EMCRIT Podcast PSA Lectures 1 and 2.

PV Card: Procedural Sedation and Analgesia

Adapted from [1]
Go to ALiEM (PV) Cards for more resources.

Reference

1. Walls RM, Brown CA. Approach to the difficult airway in adults outside the operating room. UpToDate. http://www.uptodate.com/contents/approach-to-the-difficult-airway-in-adults-outside-the-operating-room. Published November 2, 2016.