HyperK and Shades of Grey: Myths and Facts about Hyperkalemia Part I

Happy New Year everybody! We start 2013 with a continuation of our discussion about the field treatment of hyperkalemia.  It might be helpful to review the first part of the discussion," HyperK and Shades of Grey" here.  We are fortunate to have as a guest contributor Dr. Brooks Walsh of the Mill Hill Ave Command blog. An advocate of prehospital medicine, Dr. Walsh offers shares "Myths and Facts" of hyperkalemia with us. My sincerest thanks him for his valued contributions!  I asked Dr. Walsh why he thought hyperkalemia presented such a challenge for EMS providers. Here is what he had to say: "The recognition and treatment of hyperkalemia is one of those areas in medicine where, despite strong & clinically relevant results in the literature, the "usual practice" keeps kicking along. This is like a lot of areas in medicine, true. But rather than curse the darkness, I wanted to go over some newer perspectives on hyperkalemia. Now, I don't want to simply reiterate all the great material that Dr. Weingart talked about on EMCRIT, so you really ought to download his great podcasts on the treatment of hyperkalemia and on why Kayexalate is likely ineffective, if not outright dangerous. The podcasts are real short, so just play them right now. With that said, I'd like to review a few topics in hyperkalemia that deserve more attention:   Myth: Dialysis patients tolerate hype...
Source: EMS 12-Lead - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: ems-health-safety ems-topics patient-management Training training-development 12-Lead ECG Brooks Walsh M.D. David Baumrind EMS myths ems12lead.com hyperkalemia Paramedic Source Type: research