Month September 2018
eponymictionary-340-256 2

Möbius sign

Möbius sign: Diagnostic test in patients with Morbus Basedow (Graves disease) - the inability to maintain ocular convergence in the presence of hyperthyroidism.

eponymictionary-340-256 2

Dupuytren contracture

Dupuytren contracture: A gradual thickening and tightening of the fascia under the skin of the palm and fingers in the hand.

EBM Gone Wild sea 340

Stop peeing on it!

Many beach locations recommend the use of vinegar for jellyfish stings, and some go so far as to stock it at lifeguard(surf rescue) stations. But why did they decide to do that? Were there lots of studies performed?

Trauma Tribulation 340 256

Another complication of facial trauma

A 27 year old male with head and extensive facial trauma is admitted to the intensive care unit after a neurosurgical intervention for an acute subdural haemorrhage. There has been difficulty with oxygenation in the operating theatre.

Literary-Medicine-340

Tired and afraid

'Tired and afraid' is a poem that could be about any one of a number of patients I have met over the past few years. But its not. It's about a man I recently met whose words are hard to forget. I doubt I was of much help.

Trauma Tribulation 340 256

It’s not a bird or a plane…

18 year old man day 7 in ICU after jumping from a building. Tracheostomy performed the day before. Acute respiratory distress with inability to pass a suction catheter through the tracheostomy tube.

Trauma Tribulation 340 256

Weingart on Pelvic Trauma

LITFL asks Scott Weingart for his take on the approach to the hemodynamically unstable pelvic fracture. The end result: a high yield mini-podcast. Enjoy!

joseph bell sherlock holmes

Smith, Bell, and the Art of Observation

Sir Sydney Smith had humble beginnings in a village at the heart of the Otago gold fields, near the southern tip of New Zealand. After a stint in the New Zealand Army during the First World War and a colourful career as a medical investigator in colonial Egypt, he went on to hold the Chair of Forensic Medicine in Edinburgh.

The power of social media leads to reversal

Christopher Watford contacted the LITFL team with a query regarding a Visual Aid Question (VAQ) from the first sitting of the 2007 examination ACEM examination. We set about investigating the query using the power of social media… For me, this…

Glandular Alphabetum

Pathology must be really boring sometimes...all that purple and pink and cold laboratory environment. So who can blame them for being excited when they chance upon a pareidolic experience, a Wolkenkuckucksheim if you like where the pathologist finally has the chance to say 'Bad news: you have a tumor. Good news: it’s really cute!'

EBM Gone Wild Black widow spider magnesium

Along came a spider

Black widow spider bites, while rare enough in the actual world, are often present at ABEM General. How many know what to do for these patients when they present to the ED?