The management of burn blisters has always produced a lot of debate. My teaching was to leave the blisters alone, as deroofing them provides no benefit but increases pain. Recently I have noticed a push to have burns debrided. Both in Canada and New Zealand, I have had plastic surgeons […]
Unfortunately, although the popularity of smoking has been on the decline for decades, vaping is becoming extremely popular, especially among young patients. More than 20% of high-school students and about 5% of middle school students admit to using an e-cigarette in the past 30 days. (Cullen 2018) When compared to smoking […]
Until I moved to New Zealand, I honestly thought that orthostatic vitals signs were dead. I never bothered to cover the evidence, because I thought we had all agreed they were pretty useless. However, in my current hospital, the trainees seem to routinely perform orthostatics, and the admitting medicine doctors […]
The Rapid Review series reviews the key points of a clinical review paper. The current topic: Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) The Paper: Timmons et al. (2019). Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome: A review for emergency clinicians. American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2019. PMID: 31097257 [paper]
Here is another collection of the articles I have found interesting in my reading from the last couple months. For this edition of the Research Roundup we have TB screening, exercise for concussion, conflict of interest, gestalt for ACS, and so much more. Podcast version over on BroomeDocs.
During my time in New Zealand, I have heard that speech far too many times. (The consequence of a strange rule that requires a doctor to be present any time a patient receives a contrast CT.) I have had a lot of time to contemplate that statement during the small […]
We spend a lot of time talking about making the emergency department experience better for children, and we probably still have a long way to go. The emergency department is an inherently scary place, to which we add a series of painful tests and procedures. No one visits the emergency […]
Hospitals are scary places for children, with the emergency department probably representing the darkest chasm of despair. Emergency clinicians have a special responsibility to guide our patients safely and humanely through this environment. As outlined in the post on pediatric pain management, we have many options available to control pain […]
At one point in history, measles was a common childhood illness, like the chicken pox of my youth. Thankfully the incidence has significantly decreased with vaccination, but the illness is now resurfacing in the face of vaccine hesitancy. Would you be able to identify and manage measles if it walked […]