Tactical Medicine News Blog

As bedside ultrasonography is becoming a staple in central line placement (especially of internal jugular lines), emergency physicians now can minimize complications, such as carotid artery puncture and a pneumothorax. Traditionally, the US probe is positioned along the short-axis of the IJ during the procedure (see right).

Thanks to my new-found Emergency Medicine friend in Turkey, Dr. John Fowler has some useful tips about scalp lacerations. Often patients with scalp lacerations have clotted blood in their hair. While we can irrigate the wound itself (and unavoidably soaking the patient in cold irrigation fluid), a lot of blood remains stuck in their hair. It would be nice if we could completely wash out the blood. This would further allows us to detect occult scalp lacerations.

Here is another installment of the Paucis Verbis (In a Few Words) e-card series on the topic of The Red Eye from EM Clinics of North America. Here are some images: Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (note subtle white precipitates over pupil) Bacterial conjunctivitis (note injection along inferior fornix) Episcleritis Scleritis [+] The post Paucis verbis card: The Red Eye appeared first on ALiEM.

I got a nice email from Dr. John Fowler from Turkey who recently published a modified version of the Hair Apposition Technique (HAT) trick in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine in 2009. Read more about the traditional HAT trick. The HAT trick allows for scalp laceration closure by using scalp hair and tissue adhesive glue. Contraindications to this technique for wound closure include hair strands less than 3 cm, because it is difficult to manually manipulate short hair.

Feedback is important in teaching and learning. I am constantly surprised by medical student and resident comments that they rarely receive feedback. In contrast, seemingly on every shift, I hear faculty giving little nuggets of feedback - during the oral presentation, during the resuscitation, after a difficult interaction, etc. There must be some disconnect. This [+] The post Article review: Feedback in the Emergency Department appeared first on ALiEM.