Tactical Medicine News Blog

Welcome to the beginning of the most exciting and terrifying time in your residency — the start to a new year! To help start the year off right a group of chief residents from across the country, through the ALiEM Chief Resident Incubator, have gotten together and compiled a list of ways for chief residents (and other resident leaders) to engage residents early to hopefully make this the best year yet of residency.

Ok, while we congratulated the senior residents in our last piece, but let’s be honest, YOU (the junior faculty members) are the ones who TRULY should be congratulated. You’ve survived residency, and now you’re the boss! You’re probably sighing with relief at the moment. But eventually, you’ll ask yourself: “Now, what’s next?” Well, yet again, the ALiEM MEdIC team has some resources for you!

The provision of high-quality compressions with minimal interruptions is central to the management of cardiac arrest. Along with defibrillation, high-quality compressions are the only interventions proven to improve patient-oriented outcomes. Recently, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has gained greater use in cardiac arrest care for determination the cause of arrest as well as guiding the resuscitation and interventions. Performance of POCUS during cardiac arrest can be challenging particularly in terms of obtaining cardiac windows. Among these challenges is obtaining images of the heart during compressions. As a result, cardiac POCUS is often performed during rhythm checks when there is a scheduled pause in compressions. Despite the potential benefit from POCUS, prolonged interruptions in compressions while attempting to get optimal windows is unlikely to benefit the patient and, may be harmful.

The PV Cards are getting a new name and their own website! Beginning today you can find the complete point-of-care reference library on its own standalone, mobile-enabled website: ALiEM Cards at www.aliemcards.com. The PV Cards have been in various formats whether they be apps and websites. Hopefully building a single repository, accessible on any device, will make the PV Cards easier to access and use when you need them at the bedside, after a shift, or in impromptu teaching sessions.

In this CritCases blog - a collaboration between STARS Air Ambulance Service, Mike Betzner and EM Cases, we take you through a not uncommon stroke presentation which then develops into a challenge with regard to management of elevated ICP, hypertension and the airway... The post CritCases 8 Management of Elevated ICP appeared first on Emergency Medicine Cases.