Cases
The C Word & POCUS
Is cancer an emergency medical diagnosis? Technically, it’s not. The primary diagnosis of cancer does not show up in any emergency medicine textbooks. And rightly so. Although the complications of cancer can kill quickly, cancer itself develops relatively slowly. As such, the responsibility for the initial diagnosis of cancer falls largely to family physicians and […]
Another abdo pain…just my 6th case today!
Every ED across the planet has its own demographic. Some EDs may see more of this, and other EDs may see more of that. But I bet we all see lots of cases of abdominal pain. Often enough, it can be difficult and time-consuming to make the diagnosis, especially in the older patient. Order blood […]
Stroke patient…order CT…admit patient…no role for POCUS :( Ho hum…
What is the role of the acute-care clinician in strokes? In large part, it’s really unexciting. We all know that. All need a CT which is usually normal. Most get admitted. Whether they are devastating or trivial, there’s not much that we can do about it (if this makes you think about lytics, go to […]
Rare as rare can be…easily picked up with POCUS!
I am working away on the French version of the eBook making a few edits as I go. One important addition is a video from Dr Bernard Richard. Bernard is an EDE 2 instructor based in Valleyfield, Québec. He saw a young women with a first trimester presentation, some combination of pain and bleeding. The […]
Avoid the poor man’s TURP with a Foley by using POCUS
Nurses are really good at putting in Foley catheters. They do it all the time and most of them are really easy to place. Most of them… When they aren’t, who do they ask for help? You bet ya! The emergency physician. If you are like Dr Lloyd Gordon, the first thing that you do […]
An EDE 3 Special Case
EDE 3 is being held at Mont-Saint-Anne just east of Québec City later this week. So I thought I would post a case where a couple of EDE 3 scans were quite useful: Groin hernias presented by Dr Andrew Skinner and the TAP block presented by Dr Ben Ho. A 69 year-old man presented with […]
#POCUS for Ocular Trauma
At EDE 2, we talk about using Ocular POCUS primarily in the search for retinal detachments and vitreous hemorrhages. It comes up less often, but we also point out its utility in the assessment of the trauma case, especially the ruptured globe. One of my colleagues in Sudbury, Dr Mark Dube, saw such a case […]
Skull fractures with #POCUS
Have you ever used POCUS to diagnose a skull fracture? We talk about it briefly at EDE 2, although we focus on the distal radius, extremities, and some other bones a bit more. But POCUS is really useful for skull fractures. Of course, if you have ready access to a CT scan, its utility will […]
Abscesses, hematomas, and cellulitis, oh my!
I used to think that hematomas and abscesses were pretty straightforward to diagnose clinically. But I have had several cases that proved my initial suspicion to be wrong. Certainly the literature suggests we could do better differentiating cellulitis, DVT, and abscesses. I saw a patient who presented after knee surgery with a hot, swollen and […]
Using POCUS for decision-making in CP R/O ACS cases
Can POCUS help you in the management of chest pain rule-out ACS cases? Let’s have a look at a case… A few months ago, a man in his mid-60s presented with a chief complaint of chest pain. Past history included dyslipidemia and a remote lower extremity orthopedic injury. The patient smoked 3/4 ppd. He had […]
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