Editor’s note: This is a series based on work done by three physicians (Patrick Archambault, Tim Chaplin, and our BoringEM Managing editor Teresa Chan) for the Canadian National Review Course (NRC). You can read a description of this course here. The NRC brings EM residents from across the Canada together in their final year for a crash course on everything emergency medicine. Since we are a specialty with heavy allegiance to the tenets of Evidence-Based Medicine, we thought we would serially release the biggest, …
Keep Emergency for Emergencies? Reframing the basic assumption
Emergency departments (ED) are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Health conditions can develop or worsen at a moments’ notice, making the ED a necessary safety net for even the best healthcare systems. However, the very characteristic that makes the ED essential also leaves it open to abuse. When there is nowhere else to go it is an attractive location to bring the intoxicated, the homeless, the destitute – the …
KT Evidence Bite: Rapid blood pressure lowering in intracerebral hemorrhage
Editor’s note: This is a series based on work done by three physicians (Patrick Archambault, Tim Chaplin, and our BoringEM Managing editor Teresa Chan) for the Canadian National Review Course (NRC). You can read a description of this course here. The NRC brings EM residents from across the Canada together in their final year for a crash course on everything emergency medicine. Since we are a specialty with heavy allegiance to the tenets of Evidence-Based Medicine, we thought we would serially release the biggest, …
The Case of the Missing Awake Intubation Kit: Episode 1
Part I: The anaphylactic patient This post is the first of a planned three-part series. In this introduction, I realize that my trauma bay does not have an awake intubation kit. This article, however, is not about awake intubation itself, as there are already many articles out there. Instead, it is about the logistical challenges of not having a ready kit, and a call for input from the social media community. – Daniel …
KT Corner: Isolated Loss of Consciousness in Pediatric Head Injury
In this post, Dr. Kirsten Weerdenburg reviews a recent article looking at the value of isolated loss of consciousness in children with blunt head injury as a predictor for clinically significant brain injury on CT. Article Title: Lee, Lois K., et al. “Isolated loss of consciousness in children with minor blunt head trauma.” JAMA pediatrics 168.9 (2014): 837-843. DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.361 Why this paper is important? Loss of consciousness (LOC) is an element on history that frequently influences …
KT Evidence Bite: Comparison of the Canadian CT Head Rule and the New Orleans Criteria
Editor’s note: This is a series based on work done by three physicians (Patrick Archambault, Tim Chaplin, and our BoringEM Managing editor Teresa Chan) for the Canadian National Review Course (NRC). You can read a description of this course here. The NRC brings EM residents from across the Canada together in their final year for a crash course on everything emergency medicine. Since we are a specialty with heavy allegiance to the tenets of Evidence-Based Medicine, we thought we would serially release the biggest, …