Tactical Medicine News Blog

You are a fourth-year medical student and super-excited to be doing your first supervised central line procedure on an actual patient. You have done so many central lines on mannequins and simulations. You feel ready. In your excitement, however, you stick yourself with the 22 gauge finder needle after you successfully get a flash-back of the patient’s venous blood. After handing off the procedure to your senior resident, you go into a mild panic. Your patient is a known HIV patient with an unknown CD4 count and viral load. After taking off your gloves and washing your hands, you report this to the attending. Should you start post-exposure prophylaxis medications for HIV? You remember that if post-exposure HIV medications are recommended, you should start it immediately and definitely within 2 hours of exposure. It’s difficult to concentrate when faced with so many questions whirling in your mind.

We sometimes see diabetic patients in the ED for a worsening foot ulcer. Sometimes it’s the chief complaint. Other times, however, you just notice it on physical exam. So, be sure you examine the feet of your diabetic patients. Occasionally, you’ll be surprised by what you find. Several questions come up with diabetic foot ulcers: Is it a true diabetic foot ulcer, or is it an arterial or venous insufficiency ulcer? Is there underlying osteomyelitis? How can I best diagnostically work this foot ulcer up for osteomyelitis? What is the Wagner grade of this ulcer? (I think it’d be Grade 2.)

Performing a physical exam on frightened pediatric patients can often be challenging. I am always thrilled to add more child-whisperer techniques to my arsenal of tricks. I have written in the past about: Balloonimals iPhone app to grossly assess peak flow Candleflame iPhone app to grossly assess peak flow Eye Handbook iPhone app with pediatric fixation animation targets Casting/splinting your buddy bear What’s your trick on performing an otoscope exam of the ears?

Did you know that there was an unexplained spike in Legionnaire’s disease (pneumonia caused by Legionella pneumophila) during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic? Since the flu season is rapidly approaching, I thought I would review what Legionnaire’s disease looks like. Yes, they will have a fever, cough, and pneumonia on CXR. These patients are generally pretty sick and almost always need hospitalization. What makes it unique? The trick is to look for extrapulmonary findings, which help to distinguish it from other atypical pneumonias. Relative bradycardia is a sure tip.

A 55 year old woman presents with rheumatoid arthritis presents with monoarticular joint pain in her left knee for the past 3 days. She has a low-grade fever of 100.2 F and a significantly warm and tender knee. “It feels different than my RA flare.” Does this patient have a septic joint?