Sean M. Fox

We know that all bleeding eventually stops: ideally, by means that we have imposed rather than by exhaustion of the patient’s RBC resources. We also know that the easiest, and often most efficacious, way to halt bleeding is to put some manual pressure on the source of bleeding. Well, that isn’t always so easy to accomplish. How do you put your finger on a bleeding tonsil?

Pediatric patient with back pain? Those of us who take care of adults also know all too well the complaint of Back Pain and are comfortable looking for the Red Flags of serious etiologies of that complaint. Back pain in the pediatric ED is definitely not as prevalent as the adult ED, but actually warrants some additional concern.

Thanks to Sean M. Fox, MD (@PedEMMorsels) for this great post!

Another tasty Ped EM Morsel to complement last week’s adult osteomyelitis post by Ben Cooper.

Thanks to Sean M. Fox, MD (@PedEMMorsels) for this great post!

Being flexible and creative are important traits to have while working the ED. It is also vital to always keep the end result in mind. Pain control is always an important endpoint for us to constantly consider. While most of us would say that we strive alleviate our patients’ pain, there is evidence that we are not great at it.

Thanks to Sean M. Fox, MD (@PedEMMorsels) for this great post!

Often the Ped EM Morsels discuss diagnoses that emphasize astute clinical skills and vigilance while minimizing the importance of laboratory testing. Appendicitis is a great example of this!

Thanks to Sean M. Fox, MD (@PedEMMorsels) for this great post!

We see that, like in adults, an elevated lactate can help identify those patients who are potentially sicker than others, although not perfectly. It is only helpful if it alerts you to severe illness presenting subtly or helps direct your resuscitation efforts… which, again, require the astute clinician to determine.

Thanks to Sean M. Fox, MD (@PedEMMorsels) for this gem with significant clinical relevance.

Often, the dreaded complications that we are taught to look for don’t present to us in the Emergency Department, but develop and evolve during the hospitalization that began with the patient seeing us in the ED. Our skill can help the child in distress, but our vigilance can detect the evolving Acute Chest Syndrome and perhaps even prevent it.

Thanks to Sean M. Fox, MD (@PedEMMorsels) for this gem with significant clinical relevance.