Do you like the ALiEM Book Club? Well we like you too!… so much so that we want YOU to join in on the next book discussion! We are taking the blog and book club to another level by pairing up with Dr. Teresa Chan (@TChanMD), an academic emergentologist from Canada. We are breaking the barriers of the internet and laying the foundation for a real-time, interactive discussion utilizing social media.
Dr. Rahul Patwari reviews the basics on how to determine an ECG’s rate, rhythm, and axis. It’s always nice to review these concepts. Do you remember how many seconds a traditional ECG typically spans on a single page? What’s the significance of the numbers: 300, 150, 100, 75, 60, 50? Spend a few minutes on these 2 refresher videos.
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What is your approach to neonatal resuscitation… that is, after you pause a millisecond to first take a deep breath. Stay calm in this always stressful scenario. Dr. Rahul Patwari goes over the basics from the 2010 Circulation publication on Neonatal Resuscitation (free PDF). What should you be thinking of and doing in the first “golden minute”?
In this series of videos, Dr. Rahul Patwari reviews the approach to the crashing neonate. Because these cases are often stressful, it is paramount to keep in mind a broad list of potential causes, such as “THE MISFITS” mnemonic:
Bleeding in general is bad. Bleeding while on anticoagulants is VERY bad. Dr. Rahul Patwari reviews the pathophysiology of coagulation, the various reversal agents, and treatment approaches we can use. In this five-part series where all videos are less than 10 minutes, Rahul goes from the basic physiology of coagulation all the way to the complex reasoning and approaches to reversing anticoagulants. These are worth a quick look and review.
Just like scores of other premedical students all striving to get acceptance to medical school, I volunteered and did research during college. I elected to work in the Virology department because I wanted to study viruses like HIV, RSV, and SARS that were causing havoc on our society. I do recall that we used HeLa cells frequently in our research. In fact, most scientists in that department used HeLa cells on a regular basis regardless of the focus of their projects. I didn’t think much of the cells and I definitely never thought of where or from whom those cells may have come from. They were simply a day to day part of my research, just like assays used for western blots. It wasn’t until I learned of the publication of the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks [Amazon link], that I came to learn about the incredible back story of these amazing HeLa cells. I believe that this book has valuable lessons to teach us clinicians about our patients, how we relate to our patients, and the significant roles we inadvertently play in their lives.
Myriad techniques exist to reduce shoulder dislocations, which includes scapular rotation, Hennepin, Snowbird, Cunningham, and Legg maneuvers. They are nicely reviewed at ShoulderDoc.co.uk. You can also supplement any technique with ultrasound-guided intraarticular lidocaine for improved pain control.
Recently, Dr. Jay Park (Beth Israel Medical Center in New York) contacted me about his novel approach to shoulder reduction which anatomically makes sense. If his animation video doesn’t convince you, check out the video of an actual reduction.