EM Basic

This is a quick announcement to let you know that EM Basic is now partnering with EB Medicine as our bandwidth sponsor.  EB Medicine publishes many resources in Emergency Medicine to include EM Practice, Pediatric EM Practice, as well as LLSA reviews.  These reviews are made by EM physicians for EM providers and provide the latest evidence based medicine reviews of common EM chief complaints.  Rec...

In this episode we are going to talk about febrile seizures.  We see this chief complaint a lot in the ED so it's important that we know this topic really well.  Today's script was written by Dr. Andrea Sarchi and will review how to do a good history and physical, how to rule out serious pathology without overtesting, and how to talk with parents.  While simple febrile seizures don't cause any har...

Ebola has been in the news for the past few months and it has taken on more urgency in the US as cases have arrived from outside the country  Within the past week, transmission to two healthcare workers outside of Africa has been reported.  Dr. Prabu Selvam, an intern at the Wright-Pratt Emergency Medicine Residency, provided the resources for today's episode on Ebola.  In this short episode we wi...

Today's episode is the second and final part of Dr. Sheyna Gifford's interview with Dr. Les Zun on psychiatric emergencies.  This episode will talk more about treating depressed patients, what you can do for patients who board in your ED for hours to days to even a week, and medications used for treatment of acute agitation in the ED.

Today's episode is another installment in the EM Basic Project.  Dr. Sheyna Gifford took on the task of interviewing Dr. Les Zun, a nationally known speaker on the topic of psychiatric emergencies.  While we did an episode on psychiatric medical screening before, this episode will focus on some of the tougher situations we encounter in the ED.  For example- What do we do about the patient who is d...

Today I am handing over the podcast to FOAMcast by Drs. Lauren Westafer and Jeremy Faust.  A little more than a month ago, Dr. Nick Genes challenged twitter to create core content FOAM for hepatic emergencies.  Lauren and Jeremy did an excellent episode on this topic on FOAMcast so here it is- re-broadcasted on EM Basic.  They'll review common hepatic emergencies and their managementi in the ED an...

Today is the third anniversary of the EM Basic podcast.  To celebrate this milestone, this is a screencast titled "Airway Update".  I first prepared this lecture about two years ago for a conference but the topics are still relevant today.  This will be most useful for medical students and EM interns who may not have been exposed to these airway topics.  This screencast will help catch you up on w...

Today's episode is another installment for the EM Basic Project by Dr. Andrea Sarchi.  Salicylate overdose is a toxidrome that we have to be on the lookout for in the ED.  While some cases are obvious because the patient or EMS can tell us what they took, some cases are subtle and require vigilance to make the diagnosis.  In this episode we'll review the important history and physical points, how...

Today's episode talks about the diagnosis and management of Acetaminophen overdose.  This is another addition to the EM Basic Project written by Andrea Sarchi. We encounter acetaminophen overdose frequently in the ED and we need to be on the look out for this because patients can be completely asymptomatic.  If we don't catch it, acetaminophen overdose can result in liver failure requiring transpl...

In today's episode we are going to talk about documentation in the ED.  It is very important that we are complete but concise in our documentation in order to provide an accurate record for the patient's ED patient to protect them and ourselves from problems down the road.  Good documentation is good patient care so we need to know how to do this efficiently.  We will review each part of the chart...

The patient's blood pressure is 190/80 but they feel fine...how do we treat these patients in the ED?  Labs?  EKG? BP meds?  Admission???...but they are here for an ankle sprain!  Asymptomatic hypertension is a challenging complaint to deal with in the ED because of so many conflicting opinions and worries but it doesn't have to be difficult.  In this episode, we'll discuss a systematic and ration...

This episode is part 2 of the PE podcast where we will discuss risk stratification and treatment of PE.  It's important that we accurately quanitfy the amount of clot burden that the patient has to order the right treatment and admit them (or maybe even discharge them) to the right location.  We'll talk about how to classify massive, sub-massive, and "non-massive" PEs and how to treat them. We'll...

This episode has been a long time in the making- presenting Pulmonary Embolism, part 1.  PE is a deadly diagnose that we frequently have to consider in the ED.  The presentations can be very varied but we need to know how to work up this disease while avoid unnecessary testing and harm to our patients.  In part 1, we will discuss risk factors for PE, symptoms that should make you suspicious for PE...

The last podcast on COPD led to some great discussion online about the use of oxygen in patients with COPD.  To address this, Drs. Tim Peck and Colby Redfield are back with a quick summary to clarify how to best use oxygen in patients with COPD.  There's also another cameo by the one and only Dr. Peter Rosen on how to suceede in emergency medicine.

EM Basic is back with another episode of the EM Basic Project.  In today's episode Drs. Tim Peck and Colby Redfield review the chief complaint of shortness of breath with a focus on COPD.  Even though we did an episode on shortness of breath a while back, it's always great to get a new perspective on this chief complaint.  Today's episode also features a very special guest cameo by the name of Dr....

This is the premiere of the first contribution to the EM Basic Project.  Dr. Brian Cohn from Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri is on the podcast today talking about mono-articular arthritis.  He reviews the common physical exam findings, the appropriate lab work and medications, how to avoid common pitfalls in this diagnosis, some evidence based medicine pearls and even some relevant...

This episode is something unlike anything I have ever done with EM Basic.  I had a case recently of a super sick patient who required a big resuscitation.  Fortunately, the patient did great and was gracious enough to give me her permission to share her case so that others can learn.  In this episode, we'll go over what happened with this patient step by step and I'll review some valuable teaching...

This is an announcement instead of an episode.  Introducing the EM Basic Project.  If you are a senior resident or attending in emergency medicine- this is your chance to contribute to the podcast.  I will be accepting quality submissions for the podcast with help every step of the way.  I'm also looking for a webmaster to help spruce up the blog page.  In addition- if you have an idea for a blog...

In this episode, we'll talk about how to manage the airway in patients with anaphylaxis or any other upper airway obstruction.  These can be some of the most difficult airways to manage and we can run into trouble if we don't have a good plan ahead of time.  Some of this is a little "advanced" and "cutting edge" but it's important to have as many tools in your arsenal when dealing with these criti...

Anaphylaxis is a potentially deadly diagnosis that requires quick action.  In this episode, we will discuss the diagnosis and management of the entire spectrum of allergic reactions from mild cutaneous reactions to life threatening anaphylaxis.  This is the first episode in a 2 part series.  Part 2 will discuss airway management in anaphylaxis and other upper airway obstructions situations.

Today's Essential Evidence Episode discusses the paper that derived and validated the PE Rule-out Criteria or PERC rule.  This is a clinical decision aid that we can use to reliably exclude pulmonary embolism in emergency department patients without any further testing.  We'll talk about some background on diagnosing PE in the ED, the study design, how to use the PERC rule in your everyday practic...

We encounter seizure disorders frequently in the ED.  In this episode, we'll review all the important points about seizures including the confusing and difficult topic of pseudosezures.  We'll also go in depth on the ED treatment of seizures and status epilepticus.

We're back with a new episode of Essential Evidence.  This article is from Academic Emergency Medicine March 2009 and it talks about getting blood cultures in well appearing kids aged 3 to 36 months.  We used to get a lot of blood cultures in these well appearing kids with fever but this article was the final nail in the coffin that got us to stop doing that.  It's hard to believe that based on ho...

EM Basic is back and ready for the new year.  We see various eye complaints a lot in the ED.  This episode will review common eye complaints, their treatments, and a bonus section on how to do a lateral canthotomy.

This episode reviews the article that most people call the PECARN head CT rule or the Kupperman head CT rule (named for the first author). This is an easy to use clinical decision rule that can help us reduce the number of head CTs that we do on children with minor head injury. We owe it to our patients to spare them excess radiation, cost, and time in the ED and this rules helps us do this. In or...