Tactical Medicine News Blog

How do you approach the repair of scalp lacerations in a child? What factors are you considering? Is the wound suspicious for child abuse? Procedural sedation versus local anesthesia of the wound Staples versus hair apposition technique (HAT trick) for wound closure This trick of the trade pearl addresses the stapling technique for scalp laceration repair. Perhaps the child’s hair is too short for the HAT trick.

I recently came across a new means of online teaching and information delivery called sketchcasting. The premise isn’t new. It combines a podcast (someone speaking) with visuals (images). In sketchcasting, the images are instead someone drawing on a virtual whiteboard in real-time to convey information. I recently found a sketchcast with stop-motion and speed-up effects, which really made the presentation dynamic and super-engaging. This sketchcast by Dan Pink (Author of “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”) was created by the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).

In the workup of monoarticular arthritis, the question that emergency physicians constantly struggle over is whether the patient has a nongonococcal septic arthritis. This joint infection alarmingly damages and erodes cartilage within only a few days. This installment of the Paucis Verbis (In a Few Words) e-card series reviews the JAMA Rational Clinical Examination article which asks “Does this patient have septic arthritis?” Pooled sensitivities and likelihood ratios were calculated. These statistics are always helpful when trying to figure out the patients probability of having a septic joint.

I rarely access the femoral vein for central venous catheterization… except in medical or trauma resuscitations. Oftentimes in these resuscitations, there are too many people near the IJ or subclavian vein site. People are intubating, performing CPR, trying to get peripheral vein access, etc.

Reflective journals and electronic portfolios are becoming increasingly popular within undergraduate and graduate medical education. I’m starting to be a believer in this learning approach, which teaches learners about professional development and life-long learning principles. Academic Medicine just published a great qualitative paper proposing a conceptual model for reflection.