The perfect human pathogen?
With winter comes norovirus. This Q&A post tests your knowledge of what may be the perfect human pathogen.
Fever in a spinal patient
A woman had a spinal injury from a car crash at 2 years of age; she since had spinal surgery and has a baclofen pump. Now she has a fever - what's the cause?
Escaping bugs
A 13-year old female with pyelonephritis is being treated with ceftriaxone. Enterobacter cloacae is cultured. Got a problem with that?
Sick, Shocked and Sunburned?
A 15 year-old female with fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, whole body 'sunburn' and hypotension. It's over to you...
CAP Challenge!
Australia CAP - 'Microbial Mystery' of case-based Q&As focusing on causative organisms and antibiotic selection.
Fulminant pneumococcal pneumonia
A 27 year old female with metastatic ovarian cancer for whom treatment options have been exhausted arrives in the ED in extremis.
Gram Negative Diplococci
21 year-old presenting to the emergency department with fevers and agitation. His lumbar puncture confirms Gram Negative Diplococci
Gastric Residual Volume
Gastric residual volume is the amount aspirated from the stomach following administration of enteral feed. An aspirated amount of ≤ 500ml 6 hourly is safe and indicates that the GIT is functioning
Best use for a bougie?
Much to our disgust EMCrit beat us to this one, hands down. But, given that the bougie is my favourite piece of kit and best buddy in the resus room, I’ve gone ahead and reposted these videos on LITFL. They…
Befriend the bougie!
OK people, time to share. Following on from befriend the bougie! @MDaware shared a great tip about using the bougie to assist in intercostal catheter placement in obese patients. Indeed, I suggested that the bougie is so fantastic, if there…
Paediatric Life Support
KEY FEATURES CAB (ERC still advocates 5 initial rescue breaths) good quality CPR in 15:2 ratio removal of ‘look, listen, feel’ de-emphasis on pulse check AED and defibrillation use encouraged (infants manual defibrillation) capnography recommended defibrillation: 4 J/kg adrenaline 10…
Pancreatitis
Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas and involves activation of proteolytic enzymes that may progress to haemorrhagic necrosis of the pancreatic parenchyma