LITFL Review 163

Welcome to the 163rd LITFL Review! Your regular and reliable source for the highest highlights, sneakiest sneak peeks and loudest shout-outs from the webbed world of emergency medicine and critical care. Each week the LITFL team casts the spotlight on the blogosphere’s best and brightest, and deliver a bite-sized chunk of Global FOAM.

The Most Fair Dinkum Ripper Beauts of the Week

This week, the EMS12Lead blog started a 12-part series called “The 12 Leads of Christmas.” Each installment focuses on what makes each lead special, and the specific findings associated in each. So far they’ve done: I, II, III, aVL, aVR, aVF, V1, V4, and V5. Stay tuned for the last 3 parts of the series coming this week! [MG]

Some awesome work by Aidan Baron and Laura Raiti: it’s SMACC the Musical! A must watch to get excited for SMACC Chicago! [SO]

The Best of #FOAMed Emergency Medicine

• Ashley Shreves discusses the Pathway to a Peaceful Death on the All NYC EM Podcast. [AS]
• Polypharmacy is a huge issue in medicine. Lauren Westafer discusses polypharmacy and the 3rd law of medicine: “For every medication action there is an equal and unintended reaction.”[AS]
• Brilliant new series from Andy Neill on eye anatomy. Great core content for anyone taking care of ocular emergencies. Part I focuses on the eye itself with subsequent episodes covering the bony parts and the parts that move. [AS]
• This week’s FOAMcast focuses on Acute Kidney Injury, including labs, etiologies, and indications for emergency dialysis. [MG]
• Dr Smith features an ECG case not to be missed: a woman in her 20s with syncope. [MG]
• Dr Smith also features a peculiar case of very fast very wide complex tachycardia. [MG]
• How well do you know your pacing modes? Or is it pacemaker malfunction? Test yourself with case #478 from ECG Rhythms. [MG]
• Your patient is hypoglycemic – do you give D50 or D10? Is there a meaningful difference? Find out at Academic Life in Emergency Medicine. [MG]
• There are a number of mnemonics for remember causes of shock, but few systematic approaches to differentiating them. emDocs’ sequential systematic approach to the hypotensive ED patient is not to be missed! [MG]
• A good bit of dogmalysis- Ryan Radecki discusses the effects of commercial air travel  on pneumothoraces in the wonderful post entitled  (Spoiler alert) “Your lungs will not explode” [SO]

The Best of #FOAMcc Critical Care

• Chris Nickson argues against blindly chasing “normal” numbers in critical care with his talk from SMACC: Euboxia and (Ab)normality. [AS]
• Justin Mandeville has some interesting thoughts on E-CPR following the publication of the CHEER study. Should this practice become more widespread? [SO]
• Todd Fraser shares his thoughts on the groundbreaking Kress paper on daily interruption of sedation in ICU patients from 2000–and reminds us that its principles are still relevant today. [SO]
• The Humanizing Intensive Care blog has always been a wonderful resource for discussing compassionate critical care. In a New Year’s Eve post, Antonia Socias discusses the difficulties encountered by clinicians in making end-of-life decisions. Moving, and worth a read. [SO]
• Review current aspects of renal failure and renal replacement therapy with some updates from the Wessex Intensive Care Society. [SO]

The Best of #FOAMus Ultrasound

• Excellent case illustrating the critical role for ultrasound in patients with undifferentiated shock from ALiEM. [AS]
• Matt and Mike talk to Canh Le Nygaard of sononorway.com about ultrasound-guided injections in a great new podcast. [SO]
• An 11 year old boy with sudden collapse at a soccer game? Ultrasound to the rescue! Check out this great case from Ultrasound of the Week. [SO]
•  Got 5 minutes spare to brush up on your ultrasound for PE? Check out another great vodcast from 5MINSONO. [SL]

LITFL Weekly Review Team

Reference Sources and Reading List

• #FOAMed – #FOAMcc – #FOAMres
• #FOAMped – #FOAMtox – #FOAMus
• #FOAMim – #FOANed