Category Name: perspectives

FOAMED

Cervical Collars for C-Spine Trauma: The Facts

Based on the available data, it does not appear that cervical collars have any appreciable positive effect on patient care. However, at this point in time, they are the recommended treatment option. Hopefully this knowledge will help your daily practice by understanding the effects of cervical immobilization.

perspectives

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Sit on the qSOFA: A pathophysiologic approach to qSOFA

The last few months have seen an enormous amount of controversy in the press, in the FOAMsphere, and in our ED hallways regarding the new consensus sepsis definition. The goal of this post is not to rehash the strengths and weaknesses of Sepsis 3, but rather to explore the pathophysiologic basis of ...

FOAMED

Teaching When There is No Time

Is it possible to teach in the ED? What about all of the critically ill patients and full waiting room? It is possible to balance great education and patient care: this post contains keys to success for teaching in the busy ED.

FOAMED

The Multiple Layers of Diagnostic Uncertainty

The young female with lower abdominal pain. The middle-aged male with atypical chest pain. The elderly female that presents with vague symptoms of dizziness. These are just the tip of the iceberg of chief complaints we will see in our emergency medicine careers. Those with symptoms that don’t ...

perspectives

Traumatic Cardiac Arrest

24-year-old male presents via EMS after being involved in altercation. According to bystanders, patient was noted to sustain several gunshot wounds from close range, notably to the left anterior chest and left upper extremity. On EMS arrival, patient was diaphoretic but awake, with GCS of 15, heart ...

EM MINDSET

Teaching the Modern EM Resident

Current EM residents, as part of the Millennial Generation (born between 1981 and the present), now see this new technology as a way of life, and feel the need to be connected online at all times.5,6 As a result, many EM residents have abandoned the traditional lecture hall and textbooks, and have ...