The Case An athlete presents to the ED with an injured pinky finger. He says that he struck it on a teammate during practice and "it bent back." The pinky finger is abducted and jutting out at an extreme angle. It is making dad nauseous. [...]
I know that performing an accurate and efficient joint exam in the ED can be challenging. Reviewing an ideal example in a "just in time" fashion can be a wonderful way to prepare for an upcoming patient. With that in mind I wanted to direct [...]
The case(s) You are seeing a pair of siblings that crashed into each other while jousting on their bikes. They were wearing helmets but both sustained forearm injuries. Both have swollen, tender forearms and you get X-Rays. And, no, there is not a BOGO discount. [...]
Check out this video that I made that reviews basic splinting technique. This can be applied to any number of splints.
This edition of PEMCurrents takes a crack at clavicle fractures. The old dictum about broken collarbones states that if both ends of the bone are in the same room it'll heal fine. For the most part this is true - at least in prepubescent patients. [...]
The Case After successfully reducing the shoulder of a young athlete - his fourth, your first. He says the the last 2 times he dislocated it was reduced by his team trainer on the sidelines. You obtain XRays and note the following. Courtesy of [...]
You may have noticed that many editions of PEM Currents align themselves closely with posts on the blog. This is by design! I want to make sure that I share the content in as many formats as possible in order to reach the widest audience. [...]
Here are the links for the entire five-part series on osteomyelitis. PART 01 / ETIOLOGY PART 02 / HISTORY + PHYSICAL EXAM PART 03 / LABS PART 04 / IMAGING PART 05 / TREATMENT
Let's move onto the final part in the osteo series - treatment. Editors note: small corrections were made on 3-14-14 with the addition of information of ortho consultation and the delay of antibiotics and changing cephalexin to cefazolin. Thanks to Dr. Indi Trehan for alerting [...]
By now you've likely seen parts one, two and three. Moving in a logical direction part four will focus on imaging, As you'd imagine, radiographic studies are supremely important in the diagnosis of osteo. Let's take a look by modality shall we? Plain films The [...]