From the very start of our Residency training, Emergency Medicine Physicians are tasked with committing to memory the correctable causes of PEA arrest. It is expected any intern worth their salt should be able to recite the H’s & T’s proselytized by the AHA as far back as 1995 (1). And yet, it quickly becomes […]
The Case of the Perfect Imperfection
The Enemy of Good is Perfect The interpretation of literature is not dissimilar from the interpretation of the Rorschach tests. To one person the data appears to be a freshly hatched butterfly full of hope and promise. While to another it is a discomforting stain resulting from the splatter of improperly handled bodily excrement. What you […]
EMCrit Podcast 36 – Traumatic Arrest
Management of traumatic arrest. Many things to do in these patients, but two things you definitely should not be doing are closed-chest CPR or giving ACLS medications. We discuss who gets a thoracotomy, what to do if a thoracotomy is not indicated, and when to stop.
EMCrit Podcast 34 – 2010 ACLS Guidelines
The brand new ACLS & BCLS guidelines were published last week. Not huge changes, but some good stuff! The free full text is available at the Circulation website. It takes hours to make your way through all of it. I boiled it down to just the facts and posted a summary on the EMCrit site. In this EMCrit Podcast I discuss some of the highlights that I think are particularly important.
EMCrit Podcast 31 – Intra-Arrest Management
This week we talk about managing the intra-arrest period of cardiac arrest. My paradigm has changed dramatically over the past few years. In the past, I viewed the arrest as a period to teach my residents how to place a subclavian central line, how to intubate when the patient is moving, and how to cram as many drugs as possible into a patient in a short period of time. Looking at how I manage an arrest today, so much has changed.