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?
Category CCC
The LITFL Critical Care Compendium is a comprehensive collection of pages concisely covering the core topics and controversies of critical care.
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.
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...
Mind the gap #2…
the case. a 43 year old male presents to your ED with a three day history of severe epigastric pain and recurrent vomiting. He has now become increasingly breathless and is complaining of severe retrosternal chest pain.
FCICM Exam Preparation
Reviewed and revised 25 May 2014 Authored by Jeremy Fernando and Chris Nickson OVERVIEW This page supports the session at the Wellington Intensive Care Medicine (WICM) course 2014 on ‘Preparing for the Exam’ by Jeremy Fernando and Chris Nickson Specific components of…
Exercise Associated Hyponatraemia
A recent coroner’s finding about the death of a Tasmanian bushwalker has reinforced the need for awareness of Exercise Associated Hyponatraemia, particularly in those participating in prolonged exercise and ultra-endurance events. What is EAH? What causes EAH? Exercise associated…
Collective (In)Competence
Communication researcher Lorelei Lingard shows how competent individuals form incompetent teams when communication fails and why this happens.