I remember when I started practicing emergency medicine a decade and a half ago it seemed that any kid who came to our ED in cardiac arrest died. I know, depressing thought. But, over the past 15 years, survival to discharge from pediatric cardiac arrest has markedly improved, at least for in-hospital arrests. This is probably mostly due to an emphasis on high-quality CPR and advances in post-resuscitation care; nonetheless the more comfortable, knowledgeable and prepared we are for the always s...
Mar 14, 2017•1 hr 25 min
In anticipation of the upcoming EM Cases main episode on Pediatric Polytrauma Dr. Suzanne Beno, Co-director of the Trauma Program at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, tells her Best Case Ever of a child who suffers a severe traumatic head injury with signs of raised intracranial pressure and cerebral herniation. She discusses the importance of being vigilant when presented with classic patterns of injury, the use of hypertonic saline, crisis resource management and shared decision makin...
Mar 07, 2017•11 min
While missing aortic dissection was considered "the standard" in the late 20th century, our understanding of the clinical diagnoses has improved considerably since the landmark International Registry of Aortic Dissection (IRAD) study in 2000. Nonetheless, aortic dissection remains difficult to diagnosis with 1 in 6 being missed at the initial ED visit. With the help of Dr. David Carr we’ll discuss how to pick up atypical presentations of aortic dissection without over-imaging as well as manage t...
Feb 21, 2017•49 min
The EM Cases Team is very excited to bring you not only a new format for the Journal Jam podcast but a new member of the team, Dr. Rory Spiegel, aka @EM_Nerd an Emergency Medicine physician from The University Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, the founder of the EM Nerd blog and the co-host of the Annals of EM podcast. The new format sees Justin Morgenstern, Teresa Chan, Rory Spiegel and Anton Helman doing deep dives into the world's literature on specific practical questions while highlight...
Feb 07, 2017•46 min
There are a whole slew of very important occult knee injuries - those that have a normal or near normal x-ray – that can cause serious morbidity if you miss them, and for the catchall soft tissue injuries there are some subtleties in diagnosis and management that will make a real difference to our patients. Arun Sayal and Hossein Mehdian answer questions such as: When should we suspect a spontaneously reduced knee dislocation? Do all patients suspected of a spontaneous knee dislocation require a...
Jan 24, 2017•1 hr 35 min
One of the things we need to think about whenever we see a patient who’s going low and slow with hypotension and bradycardia is an overdose. B-blockers, calcium channel blockers (CCB) and digoxin are some of the most frequently prescribed cardiovascular drugs. And inevitably we’re gonna be faced with both intentional and unintentional overdoses from these drugs in the ED. If we can recognize these overdoses early and manage them appropriately, well - we’ll save some lives...
Jan 03, 2017•1 hr 36 min
As EM Cases has grown and expanded over the past 7 years I've had the pleasure of working with a team of talented people. This Best Case Ever was produced by two all-star EM residents from Ottawa, podcaster Dr. Rajiv Vairavanathan and editor Dr. Richard Hoang. In this all-resident Best Case Ever we interview Dr. Chris Belcher from University of Kentucky about TTP - Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, that rare but often elusive clotting disorder that picks off multiple organs and has a near 100...
Dec 20, 2016•9 min
In anticipation of EM Cases Episode 90 on the Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) guidelines with the lead author Dr. Allan DeCaen and Dr. Anthony Crocco, Dr. DeCaen tells his Best Case Ever showing us the value of orchestrated team work and a great example of the saying, "they're not dead until they're warm and dead"...
Dec 06, 2016•5 min
In this Part 2, DOACs Bleeding and Reversal we discuss the management of bleeding in patients taking DOACs with minor risk bleeds, like epistaxis where local control is easy to access, moderate risk bleeds, like stable GI bleeds and high risk bleeds, like intracranial hemorrhage. We answer questions such as: How do we weigh the risks and benefits of stopping the DOAC? When is reversal of the DOAC is advised? How best do we accomplish the reversal of DOACs? Is there any good evidence for the newe...
Dec 06, 2016•54 min
As we get better at picking up thromboembolic disease, and the indications for Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACs) widen, we're faced with increasingly complex decisions about when to start these medications, how to start them, when to stop them and how to manage bleeding associated with them. There’s a lot that we need to know about these drugs to minimize the risk of thromboembolism in our patients while at the same time minimizing their risk of bleeding...
Nov 22, 2016•1 hr 15 min
This is EM Cases Journal Jam podcast on a randomized control trial of dilute apple juice vs PediaLyte for mild pediatric gastroenteritis. While IV rehydration is required in cases of severe gastroenteritis (which we rarely see in North America) and oral rehydration with electrolyte maintenance solutions is still the mainstay in treating moderate gastroenteritis, could better-tasting, more cost-effective fluids such as diluted apple juice be just as effective as traditional electrolyte solutions ...
Nov 08, 2016•43 min
In anticipation of Episode 88 and 89: DOACs Use, Misuse and Reversal with the president of Thrombosis Canada and world renowned thrombosis researcher Dr. Jim Douketis, internist and thrombosis expert Dr. Benjamin Bell and 'The Walking Encyclopedia of EM' Dr. Walter Himmel, we have Dr. Himmel telling us the story of his Best Case Ever on anticoagulants and GI bleed. He discusses the most important contraindication to DOACs, the importance of not only attempting to reverse the effects of anticoagu...
Nov 08, 2016•10 min
Alcohol withdrawal is everywhere. We see over half a million patients in U.S. EDs for alcohol withdrawal every year. Despite these huge volumes of patients and the diagnosis of alcohol withdrawal seeming relatively straightforward, it’s actually missed more often than we’d like to admit, being confused with things like drug intoxication or sepsis. Or it’s not even on our radar when an older patient presents with delirium. What’s even more surprising is that even if we do nail the diagnosis, obse...
Oct 25, 2016•1 hr 26 min
In anticipation of EM Cases Episode 87 on Alcohol Withdrawal Dr. Sara Gray describes her Best Case Ever of severe alcohol withdrawal and Delirium Tremens from Janus General. Also on this podcast Dr. Anand Swaminathan reacts to Episode 86 Emergency Management of Hyperkalemia and discusses the use of calcium in the setting of digoxin toxicity. Early recognition and treatment of Delirium Tremens - a rapid onset of severe alcohol withdrawal accompanied by delirium and autonomic instability about 3-1...
Oct 11, 2016•18 min
This is 'A Nuanced Approach to Emergency Management of Hyperkalemia' on EM Cases. Of all the electrolyte emergencies, hyperkalemia is the one that has the greatest potential to lead to cardiac arrest. And so, early in my EM training I learned to get the patient on a monitor, ensure IV access, order up an ECG, bombard the patient with a cocktail of kayexalate, calcium, insulin, B-agonists, bicarb, fluids and furosemide, and get the patient admitted, maybe with some dialysis to boot. Little did I ...
Sep 27, 2016•1 hr 10 min
Melanie Baimel's Best Case Ever on Post-Arrest Hyperkalemia on EM Cases. Post arrest patients can sometimes be challenging. We need to think of a variety of underlying causes of the arrest, antiarrhythmics, possible cath lab activation, targeted temperature management, sedation and more. To add to this, many post arrest patients do not have ideal vital signs that require attention. In this Best Case Ever, in anticipation of our upcoming episode on A Rational Approach to Hyperkalemia Dr. Melanie ...
Sep 13, 2016•4 min
Psychiatric chief complaints comprise about 6 or 7% of all ED visits, with the numbers of psychiatric patients we see increasing every year. The ED serves as both the lifeline and the gateway to psychiatric care for millions of patients suffering from acute behavioural or psychiatric emergencies. As ED docs, besides assessing the risk of suicide and homicide, one of the most important jobs we have is to determine whether the patient’s psychiatric or behavioral emergency is the result of an organ...
Aug 30, 2016•1 hr 14 min
Congenital Heart Disease Emergencies on EM cases with Gary Joubert and Ashley Strobel. You might be surprised to learn that the prevalence of critical cardiac disease in infants is almost as high as the prevalence of infant sepsis. And if you’re like me, you don’t feel quite as confident managing sick infants with critical heart disease as you do managing sepsis. Critical congenital heart defects are often missed in the ED. For a variety of reasons, there are currently more children with congeni...
Aug 11, 2016•1 hr 9 min
Journal Jam 7 - Amiodarone vs Lidocaine vs Placebo in Cardiac Arrest: The ALPS Trial. In our most popular EM Cases episode to date - ACLS Guidelines Cardiac Arrest Controversies, we boldly stated, that there has never been an antiarrhythmic medication that has shown any long term survival benefit in cardiac arrest. The use of medications in cardiac arrest has been one of those things that we all do, but that we know the evidence isn’t great for. Yet Amiodarone is still in the newest AHA adult ca...
Jul 26, 2016•1 hr 9 min
In anticipation of EM Cases' upcoming episode, Congenital Heart Disease Emergencies we have Dr. Gary Joubert a double certified Pediatric EM and Pediatric Cardiology expert telling his Best Case Ever of a four month old infant who presents with intermittent cyanosis. The Cyanotic Infant can present a significant challenge to the EM provider as the differential is wide, ranging from benign causes such as GERD to life threatening heart disease that may present atypically in a well-appearing child....
Jul 26, 2016•8 min
EM Cases Episode 83 - 5 Critical Care Controversies from SMACC Dublin: I had the great opportunity to gather some of the brightest minds in Emergency Medicine and Critical Care from around the world (Mark Forrest from U.K., Chris Nickson from Australia, Chris Hicks from Canada and Scott Weingart from U.S.) at the SMACC Dublin Conference and ask them about 5 Critical Care Controversies and concepts: How to best prepare your team for a resuscitation Optimum fluid management in sepsis Direct vs. vi...
Jul 05, 2016•32 min
EM Cases Best Case Ever - Chris Nickson on Hickam's Dictum. Usually we use the heuristic of Occam's razor to help us arrive at one diagnosis that makes sense of all the data points that a particular patient presents to us. However sometimes it's not so straight forward and we need to think about multiple diagnoses that explain a patient's condition - Hickam's Dictum. Dr. Chris Nickson, the brains behind the Life in the Fast Lane blog tells his Best Case Ever from the SMACC Conference in Dublin, ...
Jun 21, 2016•12 min
EM Cases Episode 82 Emergency Radiology Controversies, pearls and pitfalls: Which patients with chest pain suspected of ACS require a CXR? What CXR findings do ED docs tend to miss? How should we workup solitary pulmonary nodules found on CXR or CT? Is the abdominal x-ray dead or are there still indications for it's use? Which x-ray views are preferred for detecting pneumoperitoneum? When should we consider ultrasound as a screening test instead of, or before, CT? What are the indications for co...
Jun 07, 2016•1 hr 9 min
EM Cases - A Balanced View on recent EM Literature with Joel Yaphe Being an optimist, I'm constantly searching for EM literature that will change my practice in a positive way and ultimately improve the care that I deliver. The past year was filled with promising papers, some of which received a lot of attention. I'm not the only one who is biased towards craving a positive paper - so are the researchers, the journal editors and the public. We all want our field to mightily move forward! Enter D...
May 24, 2016•38 min
I had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. Mike Winters on his first ever visit to Canada at North York General's Emergency Medicine Update Conference, where he gave two fantastic presentations. His credentials are impressive: He is the Medical Director of the Emergency Department, Associate Professor in both EM and IM, EM-IM-Critical Care Program co-director and Residency Program Director of EM-IM at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Sometimes we are so caught up with the job we need to get...
May 10, 2016•24 min
Whether you’re a first year resident or a veteran of EM, you’ve probably given, or will be giving at least one presentation at some point in your career. On the one hand, presentations can be intimidating, time consuming to prepare for and frightening to perform, but on the other hand, if you’re well-prepared and know the tricks of the trade, they can be fun, educational and hugely rewarding. Giving a memorable and educational talk requires skill. It requires serious thoughtful planning, dedicat...
Apr 26, 2016•1 hr 7 min
In this EM Cases episode on Pediatric Asthma we discuss risk stratification (including the PASS and PRAM scores), indications for CXR, the value of blood gases, MDIs with spacer vs nebulizers for salbutamol and ipatropium bromide, the best way to give corticosteroids, the value of inhaled steroids, the importance of early administration of magnesium sulphate in the sickest kids, and the controversies around the use of ketamine, heliox, high flow nasal cannuala oxygen, NIPPV, epinephrine and IV s...
Apr 12, 2016•1 hr 9 min
This is EM Cases Journal Jam Podcast 6 - Outpatient Topical Anesthetics for Corneal Abrasions. I’ve been told countless times by ophthalmologists and other colleagues NEVER to prescribe topical anesthetics for corneal abrasion patients, with the reason being largely theoretical - that tetracaine and the like will inhibit re-epithelialization and therefore delay epithelial healing as well as decrease corneal sensation, resulting in corneal ulcers. With prolonged use of outpatient topical anesthet...
Mar 29, 2016•26 min
Anaphylaxis is the quintessential medical emergency. We own this one. While the vast majority of anaphylaxis is relatively benign, about 1% of these patients die from anaphylactic shock. And usually they die quickly. Observational data show that people who die from anaphylaxis and anaphylactic shock do so within about 5-30mins of onset, and in up to 40% there’s no identifiable trigger. The sad thing is that many of these deaths are because of two simple reasons: 1. The anaphylaxis was misdiagnos...
Mar 15, 2016•51 min
In this EM Cases episode with Dr. Nazanin Meshkat, multinational ED doc and Dr. Matthew Muller, infectious disease specialist, we discuss the most common tropical disease killers that we see in patients who present with Fever in the Returning Traveler. Every year an increasing number of people travel abroad, and travelers to tropical destinations are often immunologically naïve to the regions they’re going to. It’s very common for travelers to get sick. In fact, about 2/3 of travelers get sick w...
Mar 01, 2016•1 hr 7 min
