#FOAM

If you’re like us, chances are that you’ve encountered the difficulty in evaluating a patient in the emergency department after seizure-like activity. Read on, contained within we offer a number of pearls for assessing this unique patient population.

Cholangitis is a potentially deadly disease. Before procedures including ERCP, mortality reached 100%. Rapid recognition and treatment are essential, which can decrease mortality to less than 10%. This post discusses updates in evaluation and management of the patient with cholangitis.

The patient with fever in the ED is a common occurrence. There are many etiologies for fever including non-infectious and infectious causes, some life-threatening. This post is full of pearls and pitfalls in the evaluation and management of patients with fever in the ED.

Well appearing patients who present to the emergency department (ED) rarely have serious disease. However, there are some conditions that can cause otherwise healthy patients to rapidly deteriorate. This article reviews a few conditions that can affect otherwise healthy patients and how to diagnose and treat these patients in the ED.

The HEART score and pathway have revolutionized evaluation of the chest pain patient in the ED. This pathway can reduce risk of missed major cardiovascular event to < 1%. Many centers utilize the HEART pathway; however, do the score and pathway have a weakness?

Hydrofluoric acid…We have heard of the dangers of this toxic acid, but many have not evaluated and managed patients with HF exposure. This post details a case, followed by pearls and pitfalls in the pathophysiology, types of exposure, evaluation, and management of HF exposure.

Having difficulty determining whether or not your GI bleeder is stable for the floor? Read on as we discuss risk stratification tools and risk factors for severe GI bleeds.

Human trafficking is a widespread problem in the US and emergency medicine physicians should be aware of how to recognize potential victims.

Tachypnea is defined as rapid breathing noted on clinical presentation. This finding can signify the presence of a dangerous condition, and this post evaluates the etiologies, evaluation, and management of the tachypneic patient in the ED. Are you missing something with tachypnea in the ED?

Welcome to Part 2 of the two-part series on surgical emergencies. This series discusses “cannot miss” diagnoses that require emergent surgical intervention. Today we discuss necrotizing fasciitis, testicular torsion, and ovarian torsion.