Certainly we've all taken care of of the patient with the chief complaint "possible seizure." Upon history and examination many of us will discover that the patient had syncope. So, the purpose of this post is to examine how we differentiate between convulsions in a epileptic seizure versus those that occur when a patient faints. Read on! What actually happens [...]
Now check out these cool videos from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center depicting select congenital heart lesions in more detail.
I was just reminded (yet again) of the usefulness of obtaining orthostatic vital signs. Recall that you obtain HR and BP with the patient supine, sitting and then standing. You must get them in that order, and they should be done after the patient has been supine for approximately 3-5 minutes with the head flat. The recommendations on how to [...]
This week on Briefs I wanted to share with you a presentation I put together on EKGs in the Pediatric ED. I decided to focus on chief complaint as a reason to obtain the study - chest pain and syncope specifically. Enjoy! Electrocardiograms in the Pediatric ED
I'm reviewing ACLS in preparation for recertification, and aside from it being a great review of stuff I'd pushed to the nether-regions of my mind, because well, adults... it reminded me that many of my pediatric colleagues see adults when they least expect it. An adult with chest pain may or may not have an MI. Reflexively that will lead [...]
The superb emergency medicine focused blog, Academic Life in Emergency Medicine, recently published a series of three posts on chest pain. Though it focuses on adults, this is a patient population that we see in the pediatric ED. Usually it's parents/family members or hospital employees. These posts are definitely worth ten minutes of your time. Check them out via the [...]
