Tamingthesru
Radiation in Pregnancy
In the first of two posts preparing for Grand Rounds in the coming week, PGY-1 EM resident, Dr. Polsinelli, guides through the murky waters of radiation exposure during pregnancy. She offers a background on what radiation is, how it's measured, the effects of radiation on the fetus, and radiation doses associated with common diagnostic exams.
Enter the FOAM
This past Wednesday, I had the pleasure of giving a lecture on FOAM to the UC Emergency Medicine Residency. Well, it wouldn't quite be a lecture on FOAM if I didn't make it freely available to all after I finished it all up. You can check out the lecture slides on slideshare embedded at the bottom of the post. I also recorded the lecture and broke it down into a series of 5-ish minute long videos which you can look at based on your area of interest.
The Approach to Abdominal X-rays
Utility of the imaging modality aside, abdominal radiographs can be a bit of a challenge to interpret. With a number of possible techniques (cross table laterals, left lateral decubitus, AP, upright, or supine) and a lot of structures to evaluate (is that small bowel or large bowel?, is that a kidney stone or an infamous phlebolith?), it's pretty easy to stare at a film and zone out as you eye moves from one shade of gray to another.
In the embedded video below, PGY-1 resident, Dr. Julie Teuber goes through a standardized approach to reading the abdominal x-ray that hopefully help keep your eyes from going cross-eyed next time you need to interpret an acute abdominal series.