Waxing and Waning Weakness
A 50 year old Chinese female presents with severe weakness. She has a history of previous similar episodes that self-resolved. What's going on?
Category CCC
The LITFL Critical Care Compendium is a comprehensive collection of pages concisely covering the core topics and controversies of critical care.
Could it be renal colic?
Consider a 65 year-old male presenting with right-sided flank pain radiating to the groin. The following CT scan was taken to confirm a presumed diagnosis of renal colic:
Does Antivenom Work?
Antivenom is widely used for Australian envenoming syndromes. Antivenoms are generally perceived, by both clinicians and the general public, as highly effective treatments. However, there is little evidence to support this widely held view, in fact, the weight of evidence suggests that some antivenoms are ineffective in clinical practice.
The Use of Thrombolysis as a Treatment for Acute Stroke
Do we, as a global medical profession, truly know whether or not tPA is a beneficial treatment early on in the presentation of a CVA?
Why we should be very wary of using clotbusting drugs to treat acute strokes
This is Part 1 of three posts a basic overview of thrombolysis in stroke a detailed overview of evidence based research into thrombolysis and CVA Schrödinger’s Fence Author: Prof Daniel Fatovich Let’s compare the treatment of strokes, to the treatment of…
Near-infrared spectroscopy
OVERVIEW Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) NIRS is a non-invasive monitor of cerebral oxygenation. It is attracting a lot of interest currently but remains to be validated for use in guiding therapy or inferring prognosis in TBI…. References LITFL Nickson C. Bullet…
Cricoid: To Press or Not to Press?
Just in case you still thought cricoid pressure was a good idea, listen John Hinds at smaccGOLD. Hinds was an anaesthetist, intensivist and a motorcycle-riding prehospital resuscitationist based in Northern Ireland. In this debate he will tell you about ‘cricolol‘.…
Is it really all about the glycocalyx?
Jeremy Cohen talks glycocalyx... and not only survives, but gives the best explanation of what the glycocalyx means for critical care you're likely to find.
Intralipid – myth or miracle?
Intralipid is one of the most exciting recent developments in clinical toxicology (right up there with high-dose insulin euglycemic therapy, aka HIET). We are rightly skeptical of any new therapy, especially one that promises so much. Nevertheless, many of the…
an abominable airway…
the case. a 28 year old male presents to your Emergency Department with a 2-3 week history of increasing neck swelling. He is now spitting out frank purulent discharge from his mouth and reports fevers and night sweats.
an insidious intruder…
the case. 28 year old male presents to your tertiary emergency department with chest pain, exertional dyspnoea and left calf pain.
PE: Pain, Puzzles and PERC
Insights from the podcast PE/ PERC wars that are raging on the web as a result of the clash of two New York titans on EMCrit...