Emergency Medicine Topics
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Hypothermia and Frostbite
Hypothermia is a medical emergency that requires immediate attention and correction. For patients with environmental exposures, especially freezing ambient temperatures, cold water, snow, and ice, frostbite injuries are of significant concern.
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Falls in Older Adults
Falls cause significant morbidity and mortality among older adult patients compared to younger patients. When treating a patient who has fallen, the emergency medicine physician should identify traumatic injuries and evaluate for medical pathology contributing to the fall, as well as manage the patient.
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Scarlet Fever and Invasive Streptococcal Disease
While most physicians are familiar with the common presentations of streptococcal infections (e.g., pharyngitis, impetigo), it is important to recognize the carrier state, learn management of common complications (e.g., peritonsillar abscess), and identify the potentially serious, and perhaps deadly, complications and invasive infections.
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Envenomations Update
This article will give an overview of medically important non-marine envenomations in the United States, including their clinical manifestations, treatment, and disposition.
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Ketamine: Old Drug, New Uses
Ketamine is a dissociative medication, the only one in its class. Most commonly used as a general anesthetic, it permits patients to tolerate acutely uncomfortable procedures while maintaining most brainstem function, such as breathing and perfusion.
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Diagnosis and Management of Acute Heart Failure in the Emergency Department
This article will focus on the care of patients with acute heart failure in the emergency department, reviewing new onset and decompensation of chronic heart failure, discussing heart failure classification based on clinical presentation, and providing updated recommendations on management and disposition from the emergency department.
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Novel Psychoactive Substances of Abuse: Part II
This is the second of a two-part series. Part I reviewed stimulants and started the discussion of hallucinogens and psychedelics. Part II will finish the discussion of hallucinogens and conclude with novel sedative drugs.
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Novel Psychoactive Substances of Abuse: Part I
This issue is the first of a two-part series on new novel or designer psychoactive drugs. Many of them represent alterations of existing agents that exhibit new effects from the modification. Keep the possibility of intoxication with these agents in mind when evaluating patients with altered levels of consciousness and mentation.
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Epistaxis: Evaluation and Management in Patients Taking Antiplatelet Drugs
Although the complaint of epistaxis often is perceived as less severe when compared to other emergency department complaints, it still may pose a challenge requiring expertise in its acute management.
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Identifying and Responding to Potential Cases of Human Trafficking in the Emergency Department
This paper aims to equip the emergency physician with essential knowledge and practical skills to identify and respond when confronted with potential cases of trafficking.