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!
We Need to Talk: Communicating with patients
During your medical training, how many times did someone watch you talk to a real patient? What about explaining their diagnosis? Or how to take their medications? Have you had a conversation with a patient and felt that you weren’t “speaking the same language”? Good...
The Bottom Line 2: Anorectal abscess & Fournier’s Gangrene
This post is a continuation of a previous post about anorectal issues in the ED. Here, we will discuss anorectal abscess, surrounding complications, and necrotizing infections. Anorectal Abscess Anorectal abscesses are thought to occur from the plugging of anal...
Crashing through the snow, reviewing the CRASH-3 trial
Dr. Krishan Yadav is an FRCPC Emergency Medicine Physician with a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology, and here he helps to provide some great insights and opinions into the recently published CRASH-3 trial. Tranexamic Acid (TXA) TXA is an inexpensive and readily...
The Bottom Line: Hemorrhoids and Anal Fissures in the ED
Anorectal issues commonly present to the Emergency Department (ED), however, the evidence around many of these conditions is sparse and practice varies widely. ED providers should have a grasp on the management and disposition of common anorectal complaints. In part...
Wake Up! Awake Intubation in the ED
Here we seek to provide a guide on when to consider awake intubation in the Emergency Department (ED), with an approach to the procedure! The Difficult Airway When assessing patients who may require any form of airway intervention, we should be assessing for two main...
Extreme Ownership: How to Own the Trauma Bay and Lead High-Stakes Resuscitations
In this post, we’re going to do something a little different. Instead of reviewing a specific Emergency Medicine topic, we’re going to discuss Leadership – How to lead your team and make things happen during a high-stakes resuscitation. As the Leadership principles...
Evaluating Effectiveness of Nasal Compression With Tranexamic Acid Compared With Simple Nasal Compression and Merocel Packing: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Methodology Score: 2.5/5 Usefulness Score: 2.5/5 Akkan S, et al. Ann Emerg Med. 2019 Jul;74(1):72-78 Question and Methods: Prospective RCT comparing compression with saline, compression with tranexamic acid, and nasal packing with merocel for anterior epistaxis....
Ostomy Issues: Common Presentations in the Emergency Department
Imagine you are working overnight in your local emergency department (ED), your next patient to see is a 52 year old man, with a chief complaint of “Ostomy Issues”. You stare blankly at the screen as you try to remember the basics of an ostomy. What’s normal for an...
Coronary Angiography after Cardiac Arrest without ST-Segment Elevation
Methodology Score: 4.5/5 Usefulness Score: 3.5/5 Lemkes JS, et al. N Engl J Med. 2019 Apr 11;380(15):1397-1407. Editorial: Coronary Angiography after Cardiac Arrest - The Right Timing or the Right Patients? Question and Methods: Patients with out-of-hospital cardiac...
Artificial Intelligence & Big Data in the ED
In today's post, we seek to: Understand what artificial intelligence (AI) is Generate a basic understanding of how AI works Review applications of AI in the Emergency Department (ED): Patient care Predictive Analytics ED Operations Intelligence Intelligence represents...