Tactical Medicine News Blog

The SplintER series is back with its fourth installment! In this series, we review splinting fundamentals, introduce advanced concepts, and highlight ways to implement these into your next shift. In this post, we summarize some of the most commonly deployed splints in the ED. Peer-reviewed by sports medicine experts (Dr. Kori Hudson and Dr. Anna Waterbrook), these injury-splint summary tables provide information on the origin, insertion, and positioning for each splint, along with the recommended number of layers of plaster.

In anticipation of EM Cases Episode 112 on Tachydysrhthmias with Amal Mattu and Paul Dorion, Melanie Baimel tells her Best Case Ever of a previously healthy young man who presents in refractory ventricular fibrillation after receiving multiple single shocks, ongoing chest compressions, several rounds of epinephrine, amiodarone and dual sequence defibrillation without ROSC... The post BCE 73 Esmolol in Refractory Ventricular Fibrillation appeared first on Emergency Medicine Cases.

In anticipation of EM Cases Episode 112 on Tachydysrhthmias with Amal Mattu and Paul Dorion, Melanie Baimel tells her Best Case Ever of a previously healthy young man who presents in refractory ventricular fibrillation after receiving multiple single shocks, ongoing chest compressions, several rounds of epinephrine, amiodarone and dual sequence defibrillation without ROSC... The post BCE 73 Esmolol in Refractory Ventricular Fibrillation appeared first on Emergency Medicine Cases.

While first trimester bleeding isn't a particularly challenging presenting complaint we do miss more ectopic pregnancies than we might think. In this series of Rapid Reviews Videos Dr. Nick Clarridge discusses important features of the history and physical in vaginal bleeding in early pregnancy, reviews types and treatment of spontaneous abortions, points out the salient features of molar pregnancies, discusses the value of risk factors and physical exam findings associated with ectopic pregnancy, talks about the myths of beta-HCG cut-offs, the role of ultrasound and ED treatment of ectopic pregnancy and much more... The post Rapid Reviews Videos on First Trimester Bleeding and Ectopic Pregnancy appeared first on Emergency Medicine Cases.

Background: In recent years, ketamine use has dramatically increased in the Emergency Department (ED). There are four major indications for the use of ketamine in the ED: analgesia with low dose ketamine (LDK), induction for rapid sequence intubation, procedural sedation and sedation of the agitated patient. A number of relative contraindications for ketamine exist though many of them have been debunked through analysis of the evidence. This includes the dogma that ketamine cannot be used in patients with head trauma (for fear of increasing the ICP) or in patients with hypertension or tachycardia. One contraindication that persists, though, is that of a history of psychiatric illness. Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor antagonist and it can produce a broad range of cognitive and behavioral disturbances including psychosis. These disturbances are short-lived in the majority of individuals but there is a fear that ketamine can cause decompensation of psychiatric illness. The ACEP Clinical Policy lists psychiatric illness as an absolute contraindication for dissociative sedation with ketamine (Green 2011).