Prior to the creation of the Ottawa Ankle Decision Instrument, most patients presenting to the Emergency room with a complaint of acute ankle injury had ankle and or foot radiographs ordered to evaluate for fracture, even though the incidence of fracture among this population is relatively low (~ 15%). While ankle radiographs do not expose the patient to large amounts of radiation,
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Journal Review
Ottawa Ankle Clinical Decision Instrument Derivation Study
Journal Review
NEXUS C-Spine Decision Instrument
Neck pain after blunt trauma is common but significant cervical spine injuries are not. An unrecognized cervical spine injury can be catastrophic as it can lead to serious neurologic disability or even death. As a result, we as clinicians are fairly liberal about performing imaging of the cervical spine after trauma. Prior to the creation of the NEXUS C-spine criteria and the Canadian C-spine criteria,
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Post-Dural Puncture Headache
Here we review the post-dural puncture headache with a focus on avoidance of the complication + treatment
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Journal Review
NINDS – tPA in Ischemic Stroke
Each year, 22 million people worldwide will experience a stroke. 50% of these are ischemic strokes. For years, there were no effective treatments for these patients. As a result, the burden of ischemic stroke was enormous. Patients often experience debilitating strokes requiring round-the-clock care. Acute ischemic strokes represent the leading cause of disability in our society and the third most common cause of death.
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Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
This post discusses the presentation, diagnosis and management of abdominal aortic aneurysm.
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The Perfect Game
I love sports; I’m the type of guy who opens up ESPN.com on his laptop before The New York Times or CNN every morning. I can most definitely name the last ten NBA MVPs faster than all of the PERC criteria. That being said, I am probably more parts “mathlete” than athlete. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about which fellow stars would make up my entourage,
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Journal Review
Intensive Blood Pressure Lowering in Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ATACH-2 Trial)
Hemorrhagic stroke accounts for only 11-22% of all strokes but up to 50% of all stroke mortality. Additionally, there is significant disability associated with the disease in survivors. Much of our attention in the Emergency Department is guided towards preventing expansion of bleeding and secondary injury after the initial insult. Physiologically, controlling blood pressure has always appeared to be a reasonable goal as it may decrease hematoma expansion and thus mortality.
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