Tactical Medicine News Blog

Take Home Points Alcoholic Ketoacidosis (AKA) can present with significant acidemia (pH < 7.00). Despite the significant acidemia, patients with AKA can remain alert and lucid despite their severe metabolic derangement. Relying on urine ketones for diagnosis can be misleading, as acetoacetate is the primary ketone detected in the urine but not the most common ketone generated in AKA. Given the redox ratio in patients with severe ethanol use disorder, urine ketones may be low or negative, as beta-hydroxybutyrate is the predominant ketone body. Treatment consists of thiamine, dextrose, and volume repletion. Remember to evaluate for concurrent medical illness: gastritis, pancreatitis, pyelonephritis, pneumonia, sepsis.

Researchers at Penn State have engineered a rapid testing technology for mpox, previously known as monkeypox. The mpox virus, which is transmitted through close contact with an infected person and that spread around the world last year, left healthcare staff grappling with a new problem. As the disease can be transmitted before symptoms arise, diagnosis […]

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed a microfluidic system to test the effects of electrical stimulation in wound healing. The researchers hope that their experiments might lead to new medical devices that can assist with chronic wounds. Their microfluidic chip contains artificial skin that contains a layer of cells which the […]

In this month's EM Quick Hits: Heather Cary on the use and misuse of abdominal FAST in pediatric trauma, Hans Rosenberg and Arleigh McCurdy on the diagnosis and management of Multiple Myeloma in the ED, David Jerome on practice tips for managing the drowning patient, Brit Long and Michael Gottlieb on the diagnosis and management of Alcohol-Induced Ketoacidosis, Navpreet Sahsi on his journey to becoming a humanitarian and global EM doctor... The post EM Quick Hits 48 – FAST in Pediatric Trauma, Multiple Myeloma, Drowning, AKA, Global EM appeared first on Emergency Medicine Cases.

In this month's EM Quick Hits: Heather Cary on the use and misuse of abdominal FAST in pediatric trauma, Hans Rosenberg and Arleigh McCurdy on the diagnosis and management of Multiple Myeloma in the ED, David Jerome on practice tips for managing the drowning patient, Brit Long and Michael Gottlieb on the diagnosis and management of Alcohol-Induced Ketoacidosis, Navpreet Sahsi on his journey to becoming a humanitarian and global EM doctor... The post EM Quick Hits 48 – FAST in Pediatric Trauma, Multiple Myeloma, Drowning, AKA, Global EM appeared first on Emergency Medicine Cases.