The Case An otherwise healthy 30-year-old woman presents to the emergency department with a pruritic rash on her upper thigh that she has had for nine days. Thinking it was poison ivy, she had been using topical corticosteroids on the area. When the rash didn’t improve, she decided to seek care. She is otherwise well; she reports no fevers, joint pain, or tick exposure. On exam she has two lesions each about 2 …
CaRMS Application Preparation
Originally posted on May 24, 2013. Staff Review added on September 16, 2014. It seems like match season only just finished. And yet, as the last of the Saskatchewan snow drifts left us, a new crop of medical student clerks (or, as we call them on the prairies, JURSIs) began preparing to sweat through the annual ritual they had been hearing stories about since their earliest premed days: CaRMS. Of course, with CaRMS …
BoringEM CaRMS Classics
In the ramp up to CaRMS, BoringEM is committed to bringing you some classic content that we think will be useful. Periodically over the next few weeks, we will be revising and posting some of the “Classics” from BoringEM around the CaRMS application period. And so I announce to you that for the next few weeks BoringEM will be posting 3 times a week! Sometime around midweek we will post one of our …
#TipsforEMexams: Dr. Rob Woods shares his EM Exam Tips
#TipsforEMexam Series In the last post of this series, I (Dr. Teresa Chan) nominated a few people to blog about their EM exam tips for final year residents sitting their exams this year. Dr. Nadim Lalani of USask already added his tips in the comments, but I also formally nominated Drs. Rob Woods (#USask) & Heather Murray (#QueensU). I now present you our first respondent: *** Name: Rob Woods, Survivor of the 2007 RC emergency …
Boring Question: Which low risk C-spine rule is best?
A Case: A 32-year-old female was the driver in a simple rear-end motor vehicle collision at about 40km/h. She was wearing a seatbelt and her airbags did not deploy. She extricated herself from the car. When EMS arrived, she was walking. On examination by paramedics, the young woman denied paraesthesias. She did complain of midline C-spine tenderness; as a result, she was boarded and collared prior to transport. She is now on a …
Boring Question: Does this medication cause long QT? (with Bonus: Tiny Tips!)
The Clinical Case A 70-year-old female presents to the emergency department with new palpitations and 2 syncopal episodes, witnessed by her son. These episodes have started within the past 10 days. Her past medical history includes diabetes, hypertension, depression, dyslipidemia and atrial fibrillation. She is a long-standing diabetic and is followed by a nephrologist for her diabetic nephropathy. Her medications included: metformin, atorvastatin, aspirin, warfarin and sertraline. She was recently seen in hospital …