Tamingthesru
Is Your Head Spinning? The Sudbury Vertigo Risk Score
There is a wide variation in practice, particularly in obtaining neuro-imaging in patients presenting with vertigo. Many patients are imaged and subjected to a longer length of stay, and on the other side of the coin, some patients with serious pathology fall through the cracks. The authors of this study set out to create a risk score to apply to patients who present to the ED with vertigo which would identify the patients at risk for serious pathology (which they defined as stroke, TIA, vertebral artery dissection, or brain tumor).
Diagnostics: Blood Transfusion Reactions
Blood transfusion is a typical activity in Emergency Medicine and while consent to the side effects are fortunately uncommon, they are a core skillset so join Dr. Sprys-Tellner in learning the numbers and reactions that define the category.
The Approach to Neuromuscular Weakness
Weakness is a common, though sometimes vague, presenting symptom in the ED. Neuromuscular (NM) weakness can have various causes, ranging from common and relatively easy to diagnose conditions (such as strokes and trauma) to less common and more difficult to diagnose ones (such as vascular pathologies, infections, autoimmune diseases, and neoplasms). This post focuses on how to localize weakness to differentiate types of NM weakness and presents classic cases of diffuse weakness caused by three diseases.