Tactical Medicine News Blog

Before I start creating a new talk, I ask myself 3 questions: Who will be in the audience? How can I make my talk more worthwhile to audience members, beyond their just reading the material/handout/articles on their own? Am I giving a talk before or after Dr. Amal Mattu? If so, just be resigned to being second-best.

Ankle fractures are a common injury diagnosed in the Emergency Department. Being able to speak Ortho-ese (i.e. the language of orthopedists) is invaluable in consulting the orthopedist over the phone. One ankle fracture classification system that our orthopedists like to use is the Lauge-Hansen system.

Occasionally, I get a rare – “Hey congrats on the article!” comment from residents or students. It’s usually in reference to my ACEP News column that comes out every 3 months on Tricks of the Trade. However, I got about 3 shout-outs in the past 2 days. How odd. Then I saw one of our office staff who was reading EM News. “Hey cool!” she said. Totally confused, I realized that I was quoted on the front page of this week’s publication about iPhone applications in EM. Many months ago, I had done a brief telephone interview with the writer.

On any given day in the ED, I use my super-bright penlight 2-5 times a day. It is amazing what things I’ve almost missed without a bright LED flashlight. Subtle HSV-2 labial ulcerations in a female patient with dysuria Additional scalp lacerations hidden in the hair Tonsillar exudates in a patient with strep pharyngitis Unequal pupillary responses in a brightly lit trauma room in a head-injured patient I wanted to revisit a prior post about the importance of changing your Tungsten penlight to a LED light.

In this installment of the Paucis Verbis (In a Few Words) e-card series, the topic is Urinary Tract Infection. UTIs are one of the most common infections that we treat in the Emergency Department.