Might the FAST exam be the most overused test in emergency medicine? If not the most overused (it does have to compete with the white blood cell count after all), perhaps it is the most overrated? Considering the sacrosanct position ultrasound holds in emergency medicine, even asking this question might […]
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In my mind, the use of NG tubes for bowel obstruction is an anachronism. I grew up hearing about literature that said NG tubes provide no benefit, but are routinely rated as among the most painful things we do to our patients. In my mind, this was a classic example […]
A key scientific lesson that I have discussed numerous times on this blog is that the interpretation of any new study must be placed within the context of what is already known about the topic. Although there must be equipoise for medical research to be ethical, equipoise does not mean […]
Although I am taking a break from posting as part of my paternity leave, there were a number of projects underway before that break started. One that I was most excited about was a collaboration with Ken Milne to write an updated summary of the evidence for thrombolytics for acute […]
For the last two decades, TXA has been put on a pedestal in emergency medicine. It has been sold as the perfect drug: life saving with absolutely no side effects. The silver bullet. Unfortunately, the evidence for this ‘wonder drug’ has never been that great. I have a very large […]
Outside of asthma or COPD, I have never prescribed steroids for community acquired pneumonia. Almost everyone has heard that dexamethasone might decrease mortality in COVID, but it is possible we should be using steroids in CAP as well. Although I have heard rumors of benefit for years, I have never […]
I don’t think that the concept of “aerosol generating medical procedures” (AGMP) is well supported by scientific evidence. However, this terminology is so widely employed that I will use it throughout this series of posts on high risk medical procedures. The term “AGMP” is really used to identify clinical scenarios […]
I have been working on a deep dive into steroids for community acquired pneumonia for a long time. The content of that evidence review was just recorded as an episode of the EM Cases Journal Jam, which will be out soon. My focus was on steroids for community acquired pneumonia, […]
In early April, I wrote a long post covering all the science I could find about aerosols and droplets. The basic summary was that this is an area of medicine with lots of misconceptions, poor assumptions, and incomplete science. There was good evidence that previous coronaviruses were spread by aerosols. […]