Quick Pimps: GI Bleeding

Posted: October 29, 2013 | Author: DidacticsOnline | Filed under: Critical Care, Gastrointestinal, Quick Pimps | Leave a comment

This is a common topic to be pimped on in Emergency Medicine. This pathology is not uncommon, can manifest with varying signs and symptoms and is associated with a high mortality. This topic is extremely important to understand, not only because of its occurrence rate and related mortality, but because the actions taken immediately in the Emergency Department can have a significant impact on patient course and outcome.

This topic is full of clinical pearls, interesting pharmacology, practical decision tools and my favorite…pseudoaxioms!

Quick Pimps: Acute GI Bleeding PDF Preview

Disclaimer: this cartoon is meant to say NG tubes are safe. Their efficacy is up for debate.

Monitoring Critically Ill Patients

Posted: August 11, 2013 | Author: DidacticsOnline | Filed under: Critical Care, Internal Medicine, Podcast | 3 Comments

Vital basics on vital signs and other signs that are vital.

Our goal in medicine is to gather and organize data, interpret that data and ultimately make decisions in the prevention, diagnosis, and management of disease. The initial part of this system is to ensure that adequate and correct data is collected and interpreted with knowledge of the process and shortcomings that the data was collected with.

Discussion includes vital signs, pulse oximetry, blood gases, capnography/end-tidal C02 (ETC02) and more. It is important to recognize where vital signs can trick you, how to deal with pulse oximetry latency and how blood gases and ETC02 can be interpreted in the setting of shock.