We are excited to introduce the Sixth edition of The Ottawa Handbook of Emergency Medicine. Your bedside guide for approaches to various Emergency Medicine presentations.
Highlights of the Sixth edition include the addition of: Oncologic emergencies, approach to the pregnant patient, geriatrics and more!
COMET-ICE Trial on Sotrovimab
Sotrovimab Sotrovimab is a monoclonal antibody that neutralizes sarbecoviruses (respiratory viruses detected by PCR on oral/nasal swabs or from bronchial/lung/respiratory tract specimens). This antibody was first isolated from a patient with SARS-CoV-1 (the virus...
Rapid Agitation Control With Ketamine in the Emergency Department: A Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial
Methodology: 3.5/5 Usefulness: 3.5/5 Barbic D, et al. Ann Emerg Med. 2021 Aug 2:S0196-0644(21)00433-9. Question and Methods: Randomized, single center, blinded clinical trial comparing the rapidity of onset, level of sedation and adverse effect profile of Ketamine...
Hypothermia versus Normothermia after Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Methodology: 5/5 Usefulness: 5/5 Dankiewicz J, et al. N Engl J Med. 2021 Jun 17;384(24):2283-2294. Question and Methods: Open-label multicentre randomized controlled trial to determine whether targeted hypothermia reduces mortality compared to targeted normothermia in...
Shouldering the load: Shoulder dislocations in the ED
Shoulder dislocations are the most common large joint dislocation encountered by emergency physicians. Given their incidence in the emergency department, managing shoulder dislocations efficiently is key to departmental flow.` Recently, Dowson et al.1 utilized a...
Milrinone as Compared with Dobutamine in the Treatment of Cardiogenic Shock
Methodology: 3.5/5 Usefulness: 3.5/5 Mathew R, et al. N Engl J Med. 2021 Aug 5;385(6):516-525. Question and Methods: The authors performed a double-blinded RCT to determine if milrinone was superior to dobutamine for the treatment of cardiogenic shock in the ICU. ...
Ottawa POCUS Symposium
Do you want to take your POCUS game to the next level? Then look no further than the Ottawa POCUS Symposium. This symposium will offer some of the best POCUS teachers in Ottawa and Nationwide. Who should attend this conference? Staff and resident physicians and other...
Efficacy of ketamine for initial control of acute agitation in the emergency department: A randomized study
Methodology: 2.5/5 Usefulness: 3/5 Lin J, et al. Am J Emerg Med. 2021 Jun;44:306-311. Question and Methods: Open-label prospective study comparing the efficacy and safety of ketamine versus haloperidol plus lorazepam in the treatment of acute combative agitation in...
Tacit Knowledge: The ER Physician’s Secret Weapon
Onboarding and transition to independent practice are challenging (1–3). New attending physicians need knowledge to function in novel roles (4), (Yeung, Cheung et al, personal communication) However, this knowledge is often tacit. By improving our understanding of ...
Human Trafficking in the Emergency Department
The United Nations (UN) defines human trafficking (HT) as "the recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, or deception for the purpose of exploitation". HT...
Prospective, Multicenter, Controlled Trial of Mobile Stroke Units
Methodology: 2.5 5 Usefulness: 2.5/5 Grotta JC, et al. N Engl J Med. 2021 Sep 9;385(11):971-981. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2103879. Question and Methods: This study investigated if mobile stroke units (MSU) alter outcomes when compared to standard management by emergency...