This case report describes a 54-year-old male on warfarin for atrial fibrillation who presented to the emergency department (ED) following a syncopal episode with persistent hypotension. The patient’s International Normalized Ratio (INR) returned elevated at 6.0, and a rapid bedside cardiac ultrasound revealed a large pericardial effusion consistent with cardiac tamponade. The anticoagulation was reversed and the patient underwent successful pericardiocentesis with removal of 1,100 mL of blood.
While the supraclavicular approach to the subclavian vein has been described since 1965, it is generally employed much less often than the “traditional” infraclavicular approach. Although randomized trials are lacking, the best evidence suggests that the supraclavicular approach has a number of important advantages to the infraclavicular approach. The landmarks and relative merits of the procedure are described in this paper.
A 23-year-old male presented to the emergency department (ED) with sore throat, chest pain and shortness of breath that started two days prior to his arrival and gradually increased in severity.
An 83-year-old male with known coronary artery disease presented to our emergency department (ED) with a complaint of palpitations and associated minor chest discomfort while on his way to play a round of golf.
Acute dermatologic conditions are a concern for acute care practitioners. Comprising 1.4% of presenting complaints to emergency departments, most skin complaints are relatively benign; however, some conditions can be quite severe. Prompt diagnosis is essential to avoid unnecessary morbidity and mortality.
Here we suggest the Trendelenburg position as yet another method of increasing cardiac output and therefore improving the effectiveness of chest compressions. We hypothesized that the use of the Trendelenburg position during CPR would increase cardiac output as measured by carotid blood flow.
This study describes a means of assessing the external jugular venous pressure (JVP) as an indicator of normal or elevated central venous pressure (CVP).
Airway management is a critical procedure performed frequently in emergency departments (EDs). Previous studies have evaluated the complications associated with this procedure but have focused only on the immediate complications. The purpose of this study is to determine the incidence and nature of delayed complications of tracheal intubation performed in the ED at an academic center where intubations are performed by emergency physicians (EPs).
To determine the relationship between emergent intubation (emergency department and field intubation cases combined) and mortality in patients with traumatic brain injury while controlling for injury severity.
