Category: Decision Making

Febrile Seizures

febrile seizures
~ Henrique Puls, Brasil ~ Leave a comment

A 20 Month-Old Male

It is a busy Wednesday afternoon in your pediatric emergency department. You work at a tertiary center, so you are used to receiving transfers from other hospitals for further evaluation and management. You see a new patient on the board. It is a 20 month-old male who came in as a hospital transfer for evaluation of first-time seizure. You go to bedside to start your evaluation. Parents tell you that he had three episodes of seizures in the past 6 hours. All of them lasted for less than 15 minutes, did not require medication for cessation, one of them was described as partial-focal and two were described as generalized tonic-clonic seizures, and the patient had complete return to baseline behavior a few minutes after each episode. Mom says that the patient had his axillary temperature taken by her at home and by the staff at the outside hospital and he had no fever on these measurements. However, she did notice some runny nose in the past 24 hours. As soon as the mom tells you that information, the nurse looks at you and says that the patient’s rectal temperature is 40.1 C.

Febrile Seizures

The first-step in the management of febrile seizures is to understand its definitions. Following that, we need to appropriately classify the patient’s presentation within one of the two types of febrile seizure.

Definition

  • Age greater than six-months-old and lower than five-years-old
  • Seizure in a patient with a temperature higher than 38 C
  • No inflammation or infection of the central nervous system
  • No metabolic abnormality that may cause seizures
  • No history of afebrile seizures

Two Types of Febrile Seizures

Class Age Number of seizures in 24h Duration Type of seizure Resolution Return to baseline
Simple
6 mo to 5 yo
1
< 15 min
No focal features
No meds required
Yes
Complex
6 mo to 5 yo
> 1
> 15 min
Focal features
Med required
No return to baseline in a reasonable time

You must note that you will be able to easily identify those patients who fit the criteria for simple febrile seizures and those who fit the criteria for complex febrile seizures. However, there will be a group of patients that fill one or two criteria for complex febrile seizure, but are extremely well-appearing. We will talk more about that later on during the discussion.

Workup

Simple Febrile Seizures

The evaluation of a child with a simple febrile seizure should focus on the underlying febrile illness. In the vast majority of the cases the cause for the fever will be a viral infection that does not require further evaluation and treatment other than some acetaminophen (paracetamol), ibuprofen, and oral hydration.

However, as part of your job, you need to think outside of the box and have a broad differential diagnosis for your patient’s presentation. Make sure to rule out signs of CNS infection (altered mental status, nuchal rigidity, petechial rashes, and prolonged, focal or multiple seizures); risk factors, symptoms, and signs of systemic conditions that could be causing a seizure; and, history of afebrile seizures. Special factors that increase the risk for CNS infections and that you should consider in your evaluation are age 6 -12 months with incomplete immunization status (Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) or Streptococcus pneumoniae) and pre-treatment with antibiotics for another disorder (which could mask meningitis).

Complex Febrile Seizure in Ill-Appearing Child

The workup in this situation is simple. The patient has meningitis until proven otherwise. You should consider starting antibiotics immediately and obtaining a full sepsis workup including complete blood cell count, urinalysis, urine culture, blood cultures, chest x-ray, and lumbar puncture for cerebrospinal fluid analysis. In addition to the infectious work-up, the differential also includes epileptic seizures, toxic ingestion, metabolic disorders, head trauma, and intracranial hypertension.

Complex Febrile Seizure in Well-Appearing Child

Now we reached the tricky part of the discussion. There are no consensus guidelines for the workup of patients with complex febrile seizures in the well-appearing child. As stated in the simple febrile seizure section, you should consider further workup if any concerns for CNS infection, systemic conditions causing seizures, or history of afebrile seizures. You should decide which workup to perform on a case by case basis. In a perfect scenario, these cases should be evaluated in conjunction with specialist consultation (e.g. with pediatric neurology) for guidance with work-up and treatment.

Case Resolution

After you finish your assessment, you make the diagnosis of complex febrile seizure because the patient had multiple seizures in less than 24 hours and had one episode with focal features. The patient is well-appearing, is fully vaccinated, has not used antibiotics recently, returns to baseline completely soon after an episode, and has no findings concerning for CNS infection on his exam. Therefore, you think that a CNS infection is less likely. Since you are facing a case of complex febrile seizure in a well-appearing child, you consult pediatric neurology for guidance with the workup and treatment. They agree with the low likelihood of CNS infection and recommend symptomatic treatment for the patient’s likely upper respiratory infection with observation during six hours in the ED. The patient has no problems during the period of observation. You re-discuss the case with pediatric neurology and they recommend discharge home with close follow-up on their clinic for further workup of other causes of seizure. A couple days later, you check the patient’s records and find that he had a spot EEG done, which was negative for epileptiform waves, and a brain MRI performed, which was unremarkable. Patient was diagnosed with complex febrile seizure and recommended to keep follow-up with his primary care physician with no need for further follow-up with pediatric neurology.

Take-Home Points

  • Always obtain a temperature from a core source, in the ED the most feasible source is a rectal temperature
  • The differential diagnosis for febrile seizures includes CNS infections, epileptic seizures, toxic ingestion, metabolic disorders, head trauma, and intracranial hypertension
  • There is no consensus about the workup and treatment of the well-appearing patient with a complex febrile seizure

References and Further Reading

  1. Festekjian A. Seizures and Status Epilepticus in Children. In: Cydulka RK, Fitch MT, Joing SA, Wang VJ, Cline DM, Ma O. eds. Tintinalli’s Emergency Medicine Manual, 8e New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; . http://accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2158§ionid=162271372. Accessed May 12, 2019.

  2. https://www.emrap.org/episode/kiddos/febrileseizures

  3. https://www.emrap.org/episode/c3seizuresin/seizuresin 

  4. John J Millichap. Clinical features and evaluation of febrile seizures. Mar 25, 2019. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/clinical-features-and-evaluation-of-febrile-seizures?source=history_widget

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An upside-down cake: the EM differential diagnosis

An upside-down cake: the EM differential diagnosis
~ Anthony Rodigin, USA ~ Leave a comment

How we’re different

When I was rotating on surgery as a medical student, our attending once asked of our small group what may be concerning in the differential for right upper quadrant abdominal pain. A very eager and a somewhat brash student blurted immediately: “Echinococcal cyst!” The attending replied, “Well, that’s true, but if Echinococcal cyst is the first thing you think of as a surgical consultant, you’re crazy!”

On the other hand, take a practicing internal medicine physician like my Dad. He formulates his differentials with a very different strategy, which is: what is the most likely? A chronic cough is bronchitis (even with hemoptysis), pneumonia, GERD or postnasal drip. Shoulder pain is, of course, a sprain, bursitis, or some referred cervical impingement. And so on.

Unfortunately, neither hunting for zebras (an unofficial US name for exciting but rare diagnoses) nor settling for the most common works for emergency medicine. In fact, that is how true diagnoses may get missed and patients may start dying. 

Why we are different

The EM differential diagnosis is a pyramid tipped on its head. It is therefore different from how differentials are approached by many other specialties.

In EM, we first have to think of and rule out the most severe or threatening pathology. That’s a given. But our choices have to come from among the common killers, not Martian viruses or unheard of tumors from a medical encyclopedia. 

Amoebic meningitis is exciting to encounter in your practice. But guess what? Your patient won’t have it. At the same time, for EM physicians things like pulmonary embolus, aneurysm of the abdominal aorta, subarachnoid hemorrhage and necrotizing fasciitis are everyday icons on our cognitive desktops. While less common than a common cold, these things are by no means rare.

Why it is difficult

In EM, one can rest assured that common pathology will present atypically and not quite like the textbook.

Things are further complicated by confounders, mimics and the disjunction of concern.
 
Confounders are concurrent pathologic processes that the patient already has, which tend to get worse due to any new significant disease process or general body stress. CHF and COPD get exacerbated, kidneys become insufficient, anxiety and psychoses go florid and atrial fibrillation accelerates to rapid. How do you spot sepsis or an MI, which is the true cause of it all, underneath layers and layers of abnormal vitals and test results?
 
Mimics are things that pretend to be other diseases. PE presenting with a low-grade fever and a cough, carbon monoxide poisoning posing as geriatric altered mental status, and severe sepsis arriving as chest pain, dizziness and a bumped troponin. Such has happened many times in the past and continues to happen daily at all EDs globally.
 
The disjunction of concern is when your patient is not worried about what you are worried about. They don’t want to get cancer like their neighbor, but they have never heard of a TIA or an AAA. Kawasaki disease? Why don’t you just give my daughter better antibiotics? My uncle died of a heart attack at 35, not a “bisection” or whatever you called it…So I don’t want a CT scan!
 
An EM physician’s focus on ruling out worst-case scenarios may paradoxically contribute to a patient’s distrust at the end of the encounter. The patient’s agenda is to leave knowing what disease they have, while we are often satisfied knowing which horrible things a patient does do not have.

It may take years of practice to be able to persuade someone that you have done due diligence and your professional duty by excluding a whole lot of deadly things, while the exact diagnosis still remains elusive.

Secretly paranoid, openly confident and always nice

We are confident, but also afraid. We have to think of the worst yet possible scenario for any complaint, yet of course anticipate that the actual diagnosis will hopefully be something less severe and quite common – like a migraine. After all, after most CT scans and lumbar punctures, it is not a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

In EM, we are in this perpetual struggle with having to be professionally pessimistic and paranoid on the one hand, yet emotionally supportive and reassuring for the patient on the other. I always teach my students, even nursing trainees, that no one should be leaving an emergency department more scared or anxious than when they came in.

Your job as a rotating trainee in EM is to understand and learn this exact interplay.

Homework

For your attending, but more importantly for yourself and your patients, you have to be as concerned with sepsis from PID on a 16-year-old young woman with fever and abdominal pain as you are with appendicitis. The 86 year old grandmother with Afib but on no anti-coagulation, because she falls a lot is not just TIA or CVA prone. Her embolic clots may just as well be traveling downstream, causing that intermittent or out of proportion abdominal pain called mesenteric ischemia – for which you do not have a good lab test or imaging, by the way.

Here is a brief checklist:

  • For any anatomic complaint or a chief complaint type

    think of several real worst-case scenarios that are not zebras. Can something horrible yet by no means unheard of be presenting atypically? What steps can you take to prove or disprove it?

  • Think of confounders and mimics.

    What else could be going on? Like a stack of dominoes: what happened first, what happened next?

  • Address the patient’s concerns

    while carefully and patiently pursuing your own professional agenda.

  • When it turns out to be something common or benign,

    don’t forget to discuss worrisome signs for which to return. What if you’re still wrong?

If you liked this story, you may like these too!

Emergency Medicine: A Unique Specialty

R. Rogers, et al.

The Importance of The Emergency Medicine Clerkship

R. Rogers, et al.

Thinking Like an Emergency Physician

 J. Lex.

james-holliman
Choosing the Emergency Medicine As A Career

J. Holliman.

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The ABCDE Approach for Medical Students

The ABCDE Approach
~ Temesgen Beyene, Ethiopia ~ Leave a comment

Emergency Medicine Is a Dynamic Specialty

Emergency medicine is a dynamic specialty which mainly focuses on the rapid assessment and intervention of life-threatening conditions. It is well known that emergency patients are undifferentiated and mostly they come for unscheduled care. This is usually a new environment for a medical student in clinical years. Facing many undifferentiated patients and understanding the situation requires an initial standardized approach. There is an “ABCDE” approach which is universally accepted and applicable in all clinical emergencies for immediate assessment and intervention (1).

The Summary of ABCDE Approach for Medical Students

ABCDE assessment, which is also called primary survey is all about looking for immediately life-threatening conditions while at the same time doing lifesaving interventions. Rapid intervention usually includes O2 Support, IV access, the fluid challenge with or without specific treatment. The approach should take no longer than 5 min. It can be repeated as many times as necessary, depending on patient condition. During the ABCDE phase, you may recognize that the situation needs much more experience than critical but straightforward life-saving maneuvers. So, get experienced help as soon as you need it. Because resuscitation efforts need a team approach, If you have one, delegating jobs can help to move steps faster and smoother.

A - Airway

Acute Problems

  • Decreased GCS
  • Excessive secretions
  • Foreign body
  • Inflammation
  • Infection
  • Trauma, and so on.

Assessment

  • Unresponsive patient
  • Added sounds
    • Snoring, wheeze, stridor
  • Accessory muscles use
  • Irregular respiratory pattern

Interventions

  • Head tilt chin lift
  • Jaw thrust
  • Suction
  • Oral airway application
  • Nasal airway application
  • Advanced airway interventions (endotracheal intubation, surgical airway, etc.)

B - Breathing

Acute Problems

  • Decreased GCS
  • Respiratory depressions
  • Muscle weakness
  • Exhaustion
  • Asthma/COPD
  • Sepsis
  • Cardiac event
  • Pulmonary edema
  • Pulmonary embolus
  • ARDS
  • Pneumothorax
  • Haemothorax
  • Flail chest

Assessment

Look

  • Respiratory rate (Apnea/Bradypnea/Tachypnea), symmetry, effort, SpO2, color

Listen

  • Talking: sentences, phrases, words
  • Air entry, wheeze, silent chest other added sounds

Feel

  • Central trachea, percussion, expansion

Interventions

  • Consider ventilation with BVM (Bag-Valve-Mask Ventilation)
  • Consider ventilation with BVM
  • Position upright if struggling to breath (be careful in trauma patient)
  • Specific treatment like β agonist for wheeze, chest drain for pneumothorax

C - Circulation

Acute Problems

  • Loss of volume/Hypovolaemia
  • Pump failure (Myocardial & non-myocardial causes)
  • Vasodilatation (Sepsis, anaphylaxis, neurogenic)

Assessment

  • Look at color
  • Examine peripheries
  • Pulse, BP & CRT
  • Hypotension (late sign)
  • Decreased urine output

Interventions

  • Position supine with legs raised (shock position)
  • Left lateral tilt in pregnancy
  • IV access – 16G or larger x2 (+/- bloods if new cannula
  • Fluid challenge
  • ECG Monitoring
  • Specific treatment

D - Disability

Acute Problems

  • Inadequate perfusion of the brain
  • Sedative side effects of drugs
  • Toxins and poisons
  • Cerebrovascular accident (CVA)
  • Increased ICP

Assessment

  • AVPU (Alert, responds to Voice, responds to Pain, Unresponsive) or GCS
  • Pupil size/response
  • Posture
  • Pain relief

Interventions

  • Optimize airway, breathing & circulation
  • Treat underlying cause (i.e., naloxone for opiate toxicity)
  • Control seizures
  • Seek expert help for CVA or high ICP

E - Exposure

  • Remove clothes and examine head to toe, including patients front and back. 
  • Look for hemorrhage, rashes, swelling, sores, syringe drivers, catheter, etc.
  • Keep the patient warm.
  • Maintain dignity

Reference

  1. Thim T, Krarup NH, Grove EL, Rohde CV, Løfgren B. Initial assessment and treatment with the Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, Exposure (ABCDE) approach. Int J Gen Med. 2012;5:117–121. doi:10.2147/IJGM.S28478

Further Reading

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Some Hints About Airway!

~ AlHanouv AlQahtani, KSA ~ Leave a comment
Some Hints About Airway!

Introduction

The airway is one of the most critical topics in the ER. Read everything about the airway; it is not a waste of time. Even if you have to spend one year just for airway, it is worth it. You will always be confident in dealing with whatever situation that might come to you. Although reading is essential, practicing and getting experience on airway issues is essential too. So, reading along with exposing many patients is a great combination to achieve good skills.

Build your own skills by reading then summarizing your own words. As long as it is correct and safe, the way accomplishing or securing the airway may not be important in many patients.

Here are some tips in airway management at the Emergency Department (ED)

I will mention some points that might help in the management of typical scenarios at the ED. They might look random, but trust me, it is the real deal.

  • Preparations

  • Attach the patient to monitor
  • Check the vitals,
  • Check saturation continuously,
  • Open IV lines (2x) and attach a bag of normal saline,
  • If the blood pressure is low use pressure cuff on the fluid’s bag,
  • If the patient maintains oxygenation don’t bag, just leave the mask on. Moreover, do not forget; bagging is not a safe procedure.
  • Your equipment’s; choose your tube size depending on the patient’s size, size of the laryngoscope
  • Make capnography ready
  • Call the respiratory therapist, if you don’t have one, you check the ventilation machine by yourself
  • Keep bougie on the side, and SUCTION! Doesn’t matter Yankuer or not anymore, as long as it takes away whatever is on your way. Don’t go too deep to avoid vomiting.
  • Raise the bed highest, keep the level of the patient up to your chest or even higher, the higher the better.
  • Have someone on your side in case you needed tracheal manipulation or pressure to facilitate the view.

  • Pay attention to hemodynamic parameters

  • Never intubate before knowing the blood pressure readings.
  • Never intubate with low blood pressure below 90 systolic.
  • Resuscitate then intubate.
  • Neutral hemodynamic resuscitation (some studies tried the use of paralytic agent alone, with local anesthetic on the glottis, the same idea as awake intubation, in case of hemodynamic instability to avoid the use of induction agents that might decrease hemodynamics). The risk of using multiple doses of an induction agent can cause hemodynamic instability.
  • However, if there is no contraindication, you can think of using ketamine to help boost the blood pressure.
  • Double the dose of your medication if the patient has low cardiac output. As with low cardiac output, the medication won’t reach fast; it might take longer than 4 min. There is no harm in increasing paralytic agents ONLY IF THE AIRWAY IS NOT DIFFICULT. Induction agents can be used as boluses also, but again be careful if the patient is unstable as it might worsen the condition.

Here is a great video summarizing hemodynamic issues in airway management

  • Intubation and beyond

  • Use direct laryngoscopy first, use the old school equipment to keep your skills fresh, but keep the video laryngoscope ready on the side. Some experts recommends using video laryngoscope blade for direct laryngoscope and if you need, just look to the screen.
  • Still failed multiple trials with the laryngoscope? Consider difficult airway. One of the recommendations is to “leave the tube in the esophagus and insert another tube; the other opening is definitely the trachea.” By the way, there are tools to understand the difficulty of the airway, so know and use it.
iEM-infographic-pearls-airway - Assessing Airway Difficulty
  • Rapid Sequence Intubation (RSI) and Delayed RSI: Delayed RSI used mainly in the ICU, and many authors hate this term. However, there is no harm if the patient is maintaining oxygenation, you can give a sedative and look before proceeding to RSI. Just don’t call this approach “RSI.”
  • Rocuronium or Succinylcholine; both will paralyze the patient; it is not about which one is better; it depends on the type of airway you are dealing with. If it is a difficult airway, you do not want to use rocuronium and end up bagging the patient for one hour. Using a short-acting agent is a smart move.
  • However, if it is easy, use it as it would help in paralyzing the patient for an hour, but doesn’t mean the patient is fine, do not forget analgesia/sedation!
  • The tube is in, yay! Good for you, but your work is not done yet. All of us been through the situation where we jump into the airway, insert the tube and leave. This is not a skill lab; it is a real patient. The patient is not moving does not mean he is fine, you paralyzed him but he can still feel. Insert the tube, attach capnography, bag, auscultate, make sure of the level of the tube’s depth, order x-ray STAT then start analgesia/sedation infusion! No matter how naive you are or had a blackout, use midazolam and fentanyl! However, please learn other options too, because different patients may require different agents.
  • Propofol infusion, the bright side of Propofol is its analgesic and sedative effect, although it has a high risk of causing hypotension.
  • The dilemma of which medication to use, as for induction or paralyzing. No one can tell you that one medication is better than the other. Read everything about each medication, understand it, then you make your own mixture.

As long as you keep reading, and updating your knowledge, with of course practice and exposure to different type of situations, you will always know how to deal with every situation.

Further Reading

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A 19-year-old female presents with sharp right flank pain and shortness of breath

~ iEM Education Project Team ~ Leave a comment

by Stacey Chamberlain

A 19-year-old female presents with sharp right flank pain and shortness of breath that started suddenly the day prior to arrival. The pain is worse with deep inspiration but not related to exertion and not relieved with ibuprofen. She denies anterior chest pain, cough, and fever. She denies leg pain or swelling and recent travel, immobilization, trauma, or surgery. She has no anterior abdominal pain, no dysuria or hematuria and no personal or family history of gallstones, kidney stones, or blood clots. She’s never had this pain before, has no significant past medical history and her only medication is birth control pills. On exam, her vital signs are within normal range, she has normal cardiac and pulmonary exams, no costovertebral angle tenderness, no chest wall or abdominal tenderness and no leg swelling.

Do you need to do any studies to evaluate this patient for a pulmonary embolism?

Pulmonary Embolism Rule-Out Criteria (PERC)

  • Age ≥ 50
  • Heart rate ≥ 100
  • O2 sat on room air < 95%
  • Prior history of venous thromboembolism
  • Trauma or surgery within 4 weeks
  • Hemoptysis
  • Exogenous estrogen
  • Unilateral leg swelling

The PERC CDR was originally derived and validated in 2004 and with a subsequent multi-study center validation in 2008. In the larger validation study, the rule was only to be applied in those patients with a pre-test probability of < 15%, therefore incorporating clinical gestalt prior to using the rule. PERC is a one-way rule, as mentioned above, which tried to identify patients who are so low-risk for pulmonary embolism (PE) as to not require any testing. It does not imply that testing should be done for patients who do not meet criteria, and it is not meant for risk stratification, as opposed to the Wells’ and Geneva scores.

Case Discussion

In order to apply the PERC CDR to the case study patient, the ED physician pre-supposes a pre-test probability of < 15%. If the ED physician has a higher pre-test probability than that, he/she should not use the PERC CDR. If the ED physician, in this case, did indeed have a pre-test probability of < 15%, the case study patient would fail the rule-out due to her use of oral contraceptives. In that case, the ED physician would need to determine if he/she would do further testing which could include a D-dimer, CT chest with contrast, ventilation/perfusion scan, or lower extremity Doppler studies to evaluate for deep vein thromboses (DVTs). The PERC CDR gives no guidance in this case.

More Clinical Decision Rules by Stacey Chamberlain
Pulmonary Embolism Clinical Images On iEM Flickr
Pulmonary Embolism Chapter
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A 57-year-old man fell from a height comes with neck pain

~ iEM Education Project Team ~ Leave a comment

by Stacey Chamberlain

A 57-year-old man fell from a height of 12 feet while on a ladder. He did not pass out; he reports that he simply lost his footing. He fell onto a grassy area, hitting his head and complains of neck pain. He did not lose consciousness and denied headache, blurry vision, vomiting, weakness, numbness or tingling in any extremities. He denies other injuries. He was able to get up and ambulate after the fall and came in by private vehicle. He has not had previous spine surgery and does not have known vertebral disease. On exam, he is neurologically intact with a GCS of 15, does not appear intoxicated and has moderate midline cervical spine tenderness.

Should you get imaging to rule out a cervical spine fracture?

C-spine Imaging Rules

Canadian C-spine Rule

NEXUS Criteria for C-spine Imaging

  • Age ≥ 65
  • Extremity paresthesias
  • Dangerous mechanism (fall from ≥ 3ft / 5 stairs, axial load injury, high-speed MVC/rollover/ejection, bicycle collision, motorized recreational vehicle)
  • Focal neurologic deficit present
  • Midline spinal tenderness present
  • Altered level of consciousness present
  • Intoxication present
  • Distracting injury present

Both the Canadian C-spine Rule (CCR) and NEXUS Criteria are widely employed in clinical practice to reduce unnecessary cervical spine imaging in trauma patients with neck pain or obtunded trauma patients. The CCR uses mechanism and age criteria, whereas the NEXUS Criteria incorporates criteria including midline tenderness and additional factors that might limit a practitioner’s exam. The CCR can be difficult for some practitioners to remember all the criteria that qualify as a dangerous mechanism and is limited to ages > 16 and < 65. However, it can be used in intoxicated patients if the patients are alert and cooperative, allowing a full neurologic exam. The NEXUS Criteria are applicable over any age range (> 1 year old), but the sensitivity may be low in patients > 65 years of age. A single comparison study found the CCR to have better sensitivity (99.4% versus 90.7%); however, the study was performed by hospitals involved in the initial CCR validation study.

Case Discussion

By applying either criteria to this case, the patient would require C-spine imaging as by CCR, the patient would meet criteria for dangerous mechanism, and by NEXUS, the patient has midline tenderness to palpation.

More Clinical Decision Rules by Stacey Chamberlain
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A 28-year-old man presents to the ED with left ankle pain

~ iEM Education Project Team ~ Leave a comment

by Stacey Chamberlain

A 28-year-old man presents to the ED with left ankle pain after twisting his ankle playing basketball. He is able to bear weight and notes pain and swelling to the lateral aspect of the ankle (he points to just below the lateral malleolus). He denies weakness, numbness, or tingling and has no other injuries. On exam, he is neurovascularly intact. Edema and tenderness are noted slightly anterior and inferior to the lateral malleolus. There is no point tenderness to the distal posterior malleoli bilaterally.

Should you get an X-ray to rule out fracture?

Ottawa Ankle Rule

Pain in the malleolar zone and any one of the following:

  • Bone tenderness along the distal 6 cm of the posterior edge or tip of the tibia (medial malleolus), OR
  • Bone tenderness along the distal 6 cm of the posterior edge or tip of the fibula (lateral malleolus), OR
  • An inability to bear weight both immediately after the trauma and in the ED for four steps.

Ottawa Foot Rule

Pain in the midfoot zone and any one of the following:

  • Bone tenderness at the base of the fifth metatarsal, OR
  • Bone tenderness at the navicular bone, OR
  • An inability to bear weight both immediately after the trauma and in the ED for four steps.

Case Discussion

In the above case, using either CDR, an X-ray is unnecessary.

More Clinical Decision Rules by Stacey Chamberlain
Ankle - Foot Clinical Images On iEM Flickr
Lower Extremity Injuries Chapter
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A 36-year-old woman slipped on ice. CT or Not CT?

~ iEM Education Project Team ~ Leave a comment

by Stacey Chamberlain

A 36-year-old woman slipped on ice and fell and hit her head. She reports loss of consciousness for a minute after the event, witnessed by a bystander. She denies headache. She denies weakness, numbness or tingling in her extremities and no changes in vision or speech. She has not vomited. She remembers the event except for the transient loss of consciousness. She doesn’t use any blood thinners. On physical exam, she has a GCS of 15, no palpable skull fracture and no signs of a basilar skull fracture.

Should you get a CT head for this patient to rule out a clinically significant brain injury?

Canadian CT Head Rule

High-Risk Criteria (rules out the need for neurosurgical intervention)

Medium Risk Criteria (rules out clinically important brain injury)

  • GCS < 15 at two hours post-injury
  • Suspected open or depressed skull fracture
  • Any sign of basilar skull fracture (hemotympanum, Raccoon eyes, Battle’s sign, CSF oto or rhinorrhea)
  • Retrograde amnesia to event  ≥ 30 minutes
  • Dangerous mechanism (pedestrian struck by motor vehicle, ejection from the motor vehicle, fall from > 3 feet or > 5 stairs)

The Canadian CT Head Rule (CCHR) only applies to patients with an initial GCS of 13-15, witnessed loss of consciousness (LOC), amnesia to the head injury event, or confusion. The study was only for patients > 16 years of age. Patients were excluded from the study if they had “minor head injuries” that didn’t even meet these criteria. Patients were also excluded if they had signs or symptoms of moderate or severe head injury including GCS < 13, post-traumatic seizure, focal neurologic deficits, or coagulopathy. Other studies have looked at different CDRs for traumatic brain injury including the New Orleans Criteria (NOC). However, CCHR has been found to have superior sensitivity and specificity.

Case Discussion

By applying this rule to the above case, the patient should be considered for imaging due to the mechanism. A fall from standing for an adult patient would constitute a fall from > 3 feet; therefore, although the patient would not likely be high risk and need neurosurgical intervention, the patient might have a positive finding on CT that in many practice settings would warrant an observation admission.

More Clinical Decision Rules by Stacey Chamberlain
Head Trauma Clinical Images On iEM Flickr
How To read A Head CT - Inforgraphic
[cite]

A 24-year-old woman presents with headache

~ iEM Education Project Team ~ Leave a comment

by Stacey Chamberlain

A 24-year-old woman presents with headache that began three hours prior to arrival to the ED. The patient was at rest when the headache began. The headache was not described as “thunderclap,” but it did reach maximum severity within the first 30 minutes. The headache is generalized and rated 10/10. She denies head trauma, weakness, numbness, and tingling in her extremities. She denies visual changes, changes in speech and neck pain. She has not taken anything for the headache. She does not have a family history of cerebral aneurysms or polycystic kidney disease. On physical exam, she has a normal neurologic exam and normal neck flexion.

Should you do a head CT and/or a lumbar puncture to evaluate for a sub-arachnoid hemorrhage in this patient?

Ottawa SAH Rule

Investigate if ≥1 high-risk variables present

  • Age ≥ 40
  • Neck pain or stiffness
  • Witnessed loss of consciousness
  • Onset during exertion
  • Thunderclap headache (instantly peaking pain)
  • Limited neck flexion on exam

A CDR to determine risk for sub-arachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) was derived and has been externally validated in a single study. The CDR’s purpose was to identify those at high risk for SAH and included those with acute non-traumatic headaches that reached maximal intensity within one hour and who had normal neurologic exams. Of note, the rule has many inclusion and exclusion criteria that the ED physician must be familiar with and was only derived for patients 16 years or older. The study authors note that the CDR is to identify patients with SAH; it is not an acute headache rule. In the validation study, of over 5,000 ED visits with acute headache, only 9% of those met inclusion criteria. Also, clinical gestalt again plays a role as the authors suggest not to apply the CDR to those who are ultra-high risk with a pre-test probability for SAH of > 50%.

The Ottawa SAH Rule was 100% sensitive but did not lead to reduction of testing vs. current practice. The authors state that the value of the Ottawa SAH Rule would be to standardize physician practice in order to avoid the relatively high rate of missed sub-arachnoid hemorrhages.

Case Discussion

By applying the Ottawa SAH Rule, this patient is low risk and does not require further investigation for a SAH.

More Clinical Decision Rules by Stacey Chamberlain
Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Clinical Images On iEM Flickr
Headache Chapter
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Sinus Tachycardia: Think Simple!

~ Erik Blutinger, USA ~ Leave a comment

You walk into a patient’s room and notice on the monitor: heart rate of 135. Your patient appears alert and oriented, speaking in full sentences, and telling you, “I have no pain, doctor.”

755.3 - tachycardia

You leave the room, scratching your head, wondering,

“why is the heart rate so high?”

Sinus tachycardia is one of the most common presentations you will find in the Emergency Department, defined as a heart rate greater than 100 beats per minute. Remember, sinus tachycardia will always include p-waves on EKG and telemetry monitoring. This rhythm can be a ‘great masquerader’ in emergency medicine, given that many different etiologies can cause it.

Often, sinus tachycardia – equivalent to an elevated heart rate (HR) – is a compensatory response to an underlying etiology. To explain this concept, let’s recall the delivery of oxygen equation:

CaO2 = (1.34 x Hb x SaO2) + 0.003 x PaO2

The equation for oxygen delivery (CaO2 = arterial oxygen content, Hb = hemoglobin, SaO2 = arterial saturation of oxygen, PaO2 = partial pressure of oxygen in the arterial blood).

All cells require oxygen to survive, and In the lungs, oxygen attaches to hemoglobin molecules so that it can be transported – courtesy of the cardiac output – to the rest of the body. When the delivery of oxygen diminishes, the cardiac output (equal to HR multiplied by the stroke volume) may increase to help compensate for the total delivery of oxygen (as seen by the above equation) (1).

How does this concept apply to sinus tachycardia and the patient in front of you?

Firstly, you want to consider whether your patient has adequate oxygenation and circulation. Check their airway, pulse oximetry, and work of breathing to ensure they are not hypoxemic. Could your patient have a pulmonary embolism? Consider checking for right ventricular dilation with an ultrasound machine or determining whether they may have missed their regularly prescribed anticoagulation.

Enlarged Right Ventricle is seen apical 4 chamber view of the heart and in Para-Sternal short axis (on the right) D shape Left Ventricle. These findings should warn physicians to think about massive pulmonary embolism in a patient with appropriate history, physical examination or risk factors.

For perfusion, check their capillary refill (normal is less than 3 seconds) and palpate their distal extremities to ensure they are warm and not likely in cardiogenic shock. Ensure they are not dehydrated and do not simply need more fluid. Without adequate volume, the body fails to deliver a sustainable amount of oxygen to its tissues. 

Make sure they are not experiencing acute coronary syndrome, either, since sinus tachycardia can occur in one-third or more of patients suffering from ACS due to either pain, hypoxia, anxiety or impending cardiogenic shock(2).

Have you considered whether they may be experiencing a GI bleed, or have an abnormal hemoglobin result with your basic lab studies? Remember: if their oxygen content (as determined by their respiratory and circulatory systems) falls below normal, their cardiac output will try to compensate. Hemoglobin is an important component of the oxygen delivery equation.

720 - variceal bleeding

Image: 17 years old girl, previously healthy, vomited blood suddenly at night, and in the ED.

Secondly, think of non-oxygen related causes including drug and hormone-related effects. Drug intoxication (including amphetamines, cocaine, TCAs plus others) plus opiate, benzodiazepine and/or alcohol withdrawal can lead to sinus tachycardia, too. Albuterol and epinephrine are other common precipitants.

Abnormal glucose and thyroid hormone regulation can also lead to sinus tachycardia. Is your patient hypoglycemic? Remember that low glucose can lead to tachycardia in response to stress (and be associated with altered mental status plus seizure activity). Have your patient’s thyroid levels been checked recently? Hyperthyroidism can easily lead to sinus tachycardia.

755.1 - exophthalmos

A 23 yo female presented with palpitation. Palpitation for 3 days and fever (reaching 39C at home). Weight loss of 24kg (90 to 66) and fatigue in the past three months. ROS: hair loss, heat intolerance, tremor, inability to close her eyes properly, irritability and anxiety. Check the thyroid hormone levels!

Finally, pain and fever! These two important aspects can easily be missed. With pain, your body implements a stress response, often leading to tachycardia. With fever and/or infection, cells require more oxygen.

There are many causes to sinus tachycardia but remember the basics: human cells need oxygen, and if it does not receive this critical element, the body will attempt to compensate by elevating the heart rate. Sometimes, your patient may be experiencing a life-threatening issue (like ACS or pulmonary embolism) or may simply be anxious!

Regardless, always think hard about potential causes and do not anchor on a presumed diagnosis too early. If you follow the basic rules, you can save a life!

References

  1. Patil, A, Ranjit, S. Hemodynamic Monitoring in PICU. In: Journal of Pediatric Critical Care. New Delhi : Intensive Care Chapter of India Academy of Pediatrics; 2014:267-292.
  2. DeSanctis RW, Block P, Hutter, Jr AM. Tachyarrhythmias in myocardial infarction. Circulation. 1972 Mar;45(3):681-702.

Further Reading

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A 20-months-old head trauma: CT or Not CT?

~ iEM Education Project Team ~ Leave a comment

by Stacey Chamberlain

A 20-month-old female was going up some wooden stairs, slipped, fell down four stairs, and hit the back of her head on the wooden landing at the bottom of the stairs. She did not lose consciousness and cried immediately. She was consolable after a couple of minutes and is acting normal per her parents. She has not vomited. On exam, she is well-appearing, alert, and has a normal neurologic exam. She is noted to have a left parietal hematoma measuring approximately 4×4 cm.

Should you get CT imaging of this child to rule out clinically significant head injury?

PECARN Pediatric Head Trauma Algorithm

Age < 2

Age ≥ 2

  • GCS < 15, palpable skull fracture, or signs of altered mental status
  • Occipital, parietal or temporal scalp hematoma; History of LOC≥5 sec; Not acting normally per parent or Severe Mechanism of Injury?
  • GCS < 15, palpable skull fracture, or signs of altered mental status
  • History of LOC or history of vomiting or Severe headache or Severe Mechanism of Injury?

The PECARN (Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network) Pediatric Head Trauma Algorithm was developed as a CDR to minimize unnecessary radiation exposure to young children. The estimated risk of lethal malignancy from a single head CT in a 1-year-old is 1 in 1000-1500 and decreases to 1 in 5000 in a 10-year-old. Due to these risks, in addition to costs, length of stay and potential risks of procedural sedation, this CDR is widely employed given the frequency of pediatric head trauma ED visits. This CDR has the practitioner use a prediction tree to determine risk, but unlike some other risk stratification tools, the PECARN group does make recommendations based on what they consider acceptable levels of risk. In the less than 2-year-old group, the rule was found to be 100% sensitive with sensitivities ranging from 96.8%-100% sensitive in the greater than two-year-old group.

This algorithm does have some complexity and ambiguity. It requires the practitioner to know what were considered signs of altered mental status and what were considered severe mechanisms of injury. In addition, certain paths of the decision tree lead to intermediate risk zones. In these cases, the recommendation is “observation versus CT,” allowing for the ED physician to base his/her decision to image or not based on numerous contributory factors including physician experience, multiple versus isolated findings, and parental preference, among others.

Other pediatric head trauma CDRs rules have been derived and validated; however, in comparison trials, PECARN performed better than the other CDRs. Of note, in this study, physician practice (without the use of a specific CDR) performed as well as PECARN with only slightly lower specificity.

Case Discussion

For purposes of the case study, the patient falls into an intermediate risk zone of clinically important brain injury. However, a sub-analysis of patients less than two years old with isolated scalp hematomas suggests that patients were higher risk if they were < 3 months of age, had non-frontal scalp hematomas, large scalp hematomas (> 3cm), and severe mechanism of injury. Given the large hematoma in the case study patient and a severe mechanism of injury (a fall of > 3 feet in the under two age group), one might more strongly consider imaging due to these two additional higher risk factors.

More Clinical Decision Rules by Stacey Chamberlain
Head Trauma Clinical Images On iEM Flickr
How To read A Head CT - Inforgraphic
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Expert Opinion: Luis Vargas – ED Overcrowding

~ iEM Education Project Team ~ Leave a comment

EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT OVERCROWDING

Dear students, emergency departments are suffering overcrowding since long time. There are various causes of this situation as well as solutions. It is better to know about ED overcrowding before your first shift. Dr. Luis Vargas from Colombia summarizes his lecture presented in 30th Emergency Medicine Congress of Mexican Society in Cancun.

ED Overcrowding - English

Manejo y consecuencias del sobrecupo en urgencias

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