Tactical Medicine News Blog

Prochlorperazine is a commonly used medication in EM. In certain patients prochlorperazine does wonders for migraines, and remains a great antiemetic choice for undifferentiated nausea/vomiting when ondansetron is ineffective. However, prochlorperazine has antidopinamergic activity increasing the chances of extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), such as akathisia, dystonia, parkinsonism, and rarely tardive dyskinesia. A common practice in the ED is to give diphenhydramine with prochlorperazine to attenuate EPS.  Does this really work? What is the evidence?

Welcome to the September REBELCast 2014, where Matt, Swami, and I are going to tackle a couple more scenarios to help your clinical practice.  Today, we are going to specifically tackle two different topics: Topic #1: The use of Non-Invasive Positive Pressure Ventilation (NIPPV) in the Pre-Hospital Treatment of Patients with Severe Respiratory Distress Topic #2: Once Weekly Dalbavancin for Skin Infections

Case: A 45 year old female with end-stage renal disease presents with 2 days of worsening pain, swelling, and color change of her left upper extremity.  The symptoms began after her left arm arteriovenous (AV) fistula was accessed for hemodialysis. The skin is tense and a bruit is present. What is your diagnosis for this swollen upper extremity? Click on the image for a larger view.

Welcome to the second ALiEM Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) Module! In an effort to reward our readers for the reading and learning they are already doing online, we have created an Individual Interactive Instruction (III) opportunity utilizing FOAM resources for US Emergency Medicine residents. For each module, the board curates and scores a list of blogs and podcasts. A quiz is available to complete after each module to obtain residency conference credit. Once completed, your name and institution will be logged into our private Google Drive database, which participating residency program directors can access to provide proof of completion.

In this new installment in the “How I Work Smarter” series, we are featuring Dr. Anand Swaminathan (@EMSwami), who seems to have infiltrated all educational digital platforms that we use. As the faculty reviewer for the evidence-based EM blog EM Lyceum, regular contributor for the EM:RAP podcast, associate editor for the REBEL-EM blog, and Editor for R&R for the Life in the Fast Lane blog, he also serves as the Assistant Program Director for the NYU/Bellevue EM residency program in his free time! After Anand was called out by Dr. Salim Rezaie’s Working Smarter blog post, he shares his own useful pearls.