Welcome to PEM Pearls: a new CanadiEM Infographic Series focused on providing approaches and high-yield pearls for important pediatric EM topics! Today we will be discussing differences in pediatric airway anatomy and airway management considerations.1 Physiology Even in a healthy child, pediatric patients are incredibly prone to rapid oxygen desaturation during apnea. Furthermore, The rate of desaturation is proportional to the child’s age: infants can reach 90% SpO2 in as little as two …
Case Report: Parkour aftermath – Andy’s fall from height in The Office
History A 36-year-old male with no medical conditions was brought to the ED by ambulance after a one-story fall in a workplace parkour incident at the Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company. While it’s debatable if the awkward leapfrogging preceding the incident could be considered parkour, Jim explains that the goal of parkour is “to get from point A to point B as creatively as possible, so technically they are doing parkour as long as point …
Teaching EBM? You can sim that!
If you’re in medicine, you’ve probably had to sit through at least one literature searching session. You were probably introduced to a long list of acronyms (most of which you’ve long forgotten) representing different literature databases. Perhaps you were asked to try out a search strategy in some of these databases, which you carefully assembled line by line. Did you ever wonder what the goal of these sessions were? Not sufficiently in depth …
2020 American Heart Association Guidelines for Adult Basic and Advanced Life Support
This year, the American Heart Association (AHA) released the updated 2020 Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care; the first major update to the internationally recognized guideline in five years. In collaboration with the AHA, the authors highlighted the “Top 10 Things to Know” regarding the guideline updates. As in previous years, the authors emphasize recognizing prevalence and mortality of cardiac arrest in both a community and hospital setting. They also reaffirm …
Taking a Sexual History in the ED
A complete sexual history is important in the investigation of several emergency department (ED) presentations. This is often challenging for students, as it can feel intimidating and uncomfortable to breach this topic with patients. Also, the setting of the ED is not inherently conducive to conversations like these, given the lack of established patient-staff rapport and perceived lack of privacy and time. As such, an organized approach with attention to the environment and …
2020 American Heart Association Guidelines for Education Science
This year, the American Heart Association released the updated 2020 Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care; the first major update to the internationally recognized guideline in five years. CanadiEM has worked alongside the AHA to produce infographics summarizing these updates. The “Top 10 Things to Know” for Education Science are as follows: Effective education is an essential contributor to improved survival outcomes from cardiac arrest. Use of a deliberate practice and …