Emergency Medicine

Good Guidance

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Locations of major topic guidelines, in alphabetical order by subject Death & Organ Donation: ANZICS Statement DKA (adult): JBDSIC (3ed) 2022 ECMO Guidance: ELSO Guidelines Extracorporeal treatments in toxicology: EXTRIP Recommendations Resuscitation: ARC Guidelines TBI: BTF Guidelines (4ed) 2016 Patient Transport: ACEM/ANZCA/CICM Guidance British Thoracic Society: BTS Guidelines

C-spine imaging

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There are really 3 types of thing to image when we are talking about C-spine injury The modality of choice depends on the structure of interest: Various features favour one over the other: Feature CT MRI Availability Widely available Limited availability Gold standard for: Bony injury Soft tissue & neural injury Radiation Some (potentially vulnerable … Read more

Reverse Halo Sign

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Great little article on a DDx flowchart for the Reverse Halo Sign on CT. Godoy MC, Viswanathan C, Marchiori E, Truong MT, Benveniste MF, Rossi S, Marom EM. The reversed halo sign: update and differential diagnosis. Br J Radiol. 2012 Sep;85(1017):1226-35. doi: 10.1259/bjr/54532316. Epub 2012 May 2. PMID: 22553298; PMCID: PMC3487053.

Spinal Cord Syndromes

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Syndromes, causes and clinical signs Syndrome Causes Clinical Features Complete transection TraumaInfectionTransverse myelitisTumour Complete loss of motor and sensory function below the level of the lesion Hemisection TraumaMSAbscess Ipsilateral loss of motor function and light touch below the lesionContralateral loss of pain/temperature below the lesionipsilateral loss of pain/temperature AT the level of the lesion Central … Read more

Blood Gases

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I’m going to focus on Arterial blood gases here. Venous gases are close enough in well people, but beware in critical illness there is divergence between arterial and venous samples, particulary in CO2, lactate and pH. Method FiO₂ Calculator 713 x 0.21 = 150 mm Hg Differential Diagnosis HAGMA (CATMUDPILES or LTKR) NAGMA (CAGE, ABCD, … Read more