Dr. Reardon and colleagues identify key management priorities in optimizing the early resuscitation in patients after out of hospital cardiac arrest. Read More →
Journal Club Summary Methodology Score: 2.5/5 Usefulness Score: 2/5 Gaspari RJ, et al. Ann Emerg Med. 2019 Jan;73(1):1-7 Question and Methods: Unblinded single-centre RCT comparing POCUS vs. physical exam guided I&D of abscesses in systemically well patients, comparing treatment failure at 10d defined by repeat I&D producing purulence. Findings: InRead More →
Non-purulent skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs; i.e. cellulitis or erysipelas) account for up to 3% of all emergency department (ED) visits. Once the diagnosis of a non-purulent SSTI is made, the emergency physician must select the appropriate antibiotic agent, dose, duration and route (oral or intravenous (IV)). Current guidelinesRead More →
Syncope constitutes 1% of Emergency Department (ED) visits, and approximately 10% of these patients will have serious underlying conditions causing syncope (arrhythmia, MI, serious structural heart disease, pulmonary embolism, subarachnoid or severe hemorrhage). Alarmingly, half to one-third of these serious conditions will not be identified during ED evaluation. We previously derived theRead More →
Most clinicians are familiar with and utilize the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) on a daily basis, but many are not aware of the updates and additions to the score that were made in 2014 and 2018, respectively. Clarifications in the wording of the scale attempt to increase the ease ofRead More →
Necrotising soft tissue infections are an significant cause of morbidity and mortality, so an timely diagnosis is critical for the Emergency Physician. Here we discuss the publication of a new systematic review and meta-analysis on this challenging diagnostic entity, and include an helpful infographic to help interpret the findings [1]. Background NecrotizingRead More →
Dr. Stella Yiu and Dr. Shahbaz Syed presented their top Emergency Medicine (EM) articles of 2017 at the National Capital Conference on Emergency Medicine (NCCEM), we’re happy to present their summary here. References for each summary may be found at the bottom of the page. Text Summary Perry JJ, SivilottiRead More →
Dr. Perry and Colleagues have previously derived and validated the Ottawa SAH rule for patients with suspected subarachnoid hemorrhage, here we present the multicenter prospective validation of the rule1, with some insight on the rule from Dr. Perry himself! Note that the infographic included within this post is printable forRead More →
Recently, Dr. Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy et al published the Canadian Syncope Risk Score, for the assessment of adult patients with syncope. He has previously helped provide some insight into the decision rule, and we now present an infographic and memory aid to help recall the score!Read More →
Syncope is an commonly encountered problem in Emergency Medicine, with the potential for significant morbidity and mortality to patients. Unfortunately, to date, there have not been any reliable decision tools or instruments to help us in our assessment of the syncope patient. This week, Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy and colleagues at the Ottawa Hospital haveRead More →