The treatment of Acute Ischemic Stroke is a rapidly evolving field with critical care transport medicine playing an increasing role in the treatment of these patients. Dr. Irankunda explores CCTM specific management and historical musts when treating this unique patient population. Dr. Gottula provides a brief review of the literature supporting IV alteplase and endovascular thrombectomy.
Read MoreEnjoy this week’s Grand Rounds Recap! Dr. Jordan Bonomo started us off with a fascinating talk on brain death, and how therapeutic hypothermia in the post-arrest patient can make this diagnosis more challenging. Next up, Dr. Harrison taught us some pearls on management of the bradycardic peri-arrest patient. Dr. Nagle shared with a us how to rescuscitate a patient with acute aortic dissection. Lastly, Dr. Summers talked to us about PRES and how to recognize and treat this rare disorder.
Read MoreIt is late on a blustery grey and rainy day in November and you are the dedicated flight doc on Air Care One (the “UH”) nearing the end of your shift. Your pilot has had to turn down two flights already due to high winds and reduced visibility as bands of storms moved through the area. Against your better judgment, you are standing in the sushi line in the hospital cafeteria to grab dinner when you hear “Air Care One Pilot, weather check for a patient coming back to the U” squawk out over your portable radio. Your excitement rises as “we can do that” echoes over the radio and you hear the tones drop for your flight. You grab the blood cooler and meet your crew for takeoff on the roof...
Read MoreHere at Taming the SRU, where we’ve been SMACC-infatuated for more than a year now, it’s easy for us to forget that many of you out there are still unfamiliar with what the fuss is all about. SMACC is the Social Media and Critical Care conference. Its next iteration, the third annual (and first to occur in North America), is coming in late June in Chicago, and wild horses couldn’t keep us away. Taming The SRU is honored and stoked to be an Affiliated SMACC Website.
Isn’t this just another CME conference, you ask? Emphatically, no. Weingart has called it “simply the greatest medical conference in the history of the world,” and we don’t think this is hyperbole. SMACC aims not only to educate; SMACC aims to entertain, and mostly, to inspire. To quote smacc.net.au: “SMACC is a high impact academic meeting fused with cutting edge online social media to deliver innovation with education. The underlying ethos is to provide free online education with open access, in what has come to be known as ‘FOAM’ (Free Open Access Meducation).” Get this: all sessions will be recorded and released as videos or podcasts online on the affiliated SMACC websites following the actual conference, for free! And yet, hundreds of us will flock to Chicago to attend in person. Why? We’re addicted to the inspiration of FOAMed, and the maximum dose of this inspiration attainable is SMACC, live and in person. (Plus, we’re sick of just ‘favoriting’ Minh Le Cong’s Tweets, and we want to shake his hand or give him a big ‘ol bear hug.) This is not your father’s medical conference. It’s infinitely better.
SMACC also aims to connect people across boundaries, and succeeds in doing so like no conference ever has. Wherever you practice critical care (prehospital, ED, OR, ICU), SMACC is for you. Whatever your discipline (student, EMT, medic, nurse, PA, NP, CNS, CRNA, doc), SMACC is for you. Whatever your specialty, whatever your experience level, whatever country you call home, whatever your clinical setting: as long as you seek inspiration to be as good as you can be at optimizing your sick patients’ outcomes, SMACC is for you. Right now, go to the brochure and look at it for just 60 seconds. Can you get a witness? You bet. Listen to this brief podcast in which Bill Knight, Jeff Hill, and I testify about the reasons for our excitement about our upcoming road trip to Chi-town. Still not sure? Check out the archives from SMACC 2014 (Gold Coast, Australia). We think you’ll be convinced. But, be forewarned: there’s no cure for SMACC addiction.
SRU (pronounced "shrew") = Shock Resuscitation Unit
Training in, and managing, the SRU is one of the crown jewels of our residency. It is where the sickest of the sick patients are found in our ED. It is a crucible, a test of knowledge and strength, and a true manifestation of the tripartite mission of our department: Leadership, Excellence, and Opportunity.
Training in, and managing, the SRU is one of the crown jewels of our residency. It is where the sickest of the sick patients are found in our ED. It is a crucible, a test of knowledge and strength, and a true manifestation of the tripartite mission of our department: Leadership, Excellence, and Opportunity.
