Beads2

You are doing a shift in the pediatric ED and you are evaluating a kid with a small bead in her ear. There are a ton different approaches you can use (eg. tissue adhesive glue on a q-tip stick). If the bead is in too deep, blindly trying to adhere the foreign body to the glue is a bit risky. Sometimes applying gentle irrigation might not be enough to wash out the bead. You want to avoid irrigation if you worry about a tympanic membrane rupture.

ButterflyNeedle

Minisuction2sm
Trick of the Trade: 
Build a mini-suction device using part of a butterfly needle.

  • Cut off the back end of a butterfly needle, leaving about a 2-4 cm tail off of the white plastic hub.
  • Tightly wedge the hub into a suction hose.
  • Turn on the suction.

 

Thanks to Dr. Liz Brown (UCSF-SFGH EM resident) for this fantastic idea.

Michelle Lin, MD
ALiEM Founder and CEO
Professor and Digital Innovation Lab Director
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
Michelle Lin, MD

@M_Lin

Professor of Emerg Med at UCSF-Zuckerberg SF General. ALiEM Founder @aliemteam #PostitPearls at https://t.co/50EapJORCa Bio: https://t.co/7v7cgJqNEn
Michelle Lin, MD