We are excited to introduce the fourth edition of The Ottawa Handbook of Emergency Medicine.
Highlights of the fourth edition include: acid-base disorders, approach to red eye, thyroid emergencies, vaginal bleeding, pericarditis and myocarditis, and monoarthritis.
Ocular PoCUS: Keep your prize on the eyes
Do you fumble using fundoscopy? Can’t find the ophthalmoscope in your department when you need to? In this post, we will show you how to refine your ocular PoCUS skills to help you manage those eye cases on your next shift. First, let’s start with some basics. You...
Is this the Era of Pandemics?
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the most globally disruptive event of a generation. But is COVID a once in a lifetime event, or just another in a long line of infectious threats? Human history has been marked by new and re-emerging illnesses often on a global scale....
HIV in the ED : Part 2
In PART 1 of our HIV in the ED Blog series, we explored the importance of diagnosing HIV in the ED, and the approach to the diagnosis. In PART 2, we hope to address the following: Indications for occupation & non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)...
HIV in the ED : Part 1
When it comes to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the ED, the most medically interesting pathology is in the acute presentation of AIDS-defining opportunistic infections. However, due to advances in anti-retroviral therapies (ART), you're much less likely to...
Patient Safety in the ED
What is patient safety? Patient safety is a discipline developed in response to the rise in hospital adverse events over the years. Aims to take lessons learned from prior unfavourable outcomes and make improvements that mitigate risks, prevent errors, and reduce...
Last Gag with Mary Jane: Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS)
With legalization, and increased ease of access to marijuana, there is increased focus on the diagnosis of Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, with broader media attention and thus patient awareness to this entity. History: Cannabis (Cannabis sativa spp.) has been...
Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis in Patients with Cirrhosis
Patients with cirrhosis are complex, with a plethora of comorbidities. They often present to emergency departments (ED) very sick, and there are many complications that emergency physicians need to know about. In this post, we’re going to focus on Spontaneous...
Venous Thromboembolism in Transgender & Gender Diverse (TGD) Persons
You are working an urgent care shift and you access your ED electronic track-board to pick up the next patient waiting to be seen: You assign yourself to patient Smith, and notice a helpful comment from your triage nurse stating the patient's name is Angela. You note...
Surviving Sepsis: The 2021 Review
A review of some of the most relevant elements of the 2021 surviving sepsis campaign for the emergency physician. Definitions Our operative definition of sepsis & septic shock are the sepsis-3 definitions [1]. Sepsis: “Sepsis is a life threatening organ...
Urinary Tract Infection: All your questions answered
How many times a shift do you consider a urinary tract infection? As Emergency physicians, you make and/or consider urinary tract infection (UTI) multiple times per shift.1 Actually, up to 5% of ED visits are related to genitourinary complaints.2-4 From simple...