Losing (and Regaining) Your Grip
Tennis elbow, also known as lateral epicondylitis, is a painful and persistent problem that can be transient or chronic. The syndrome is caused by overuse of the elbow, although not always caused by one too many games of tennis.Lateral epicondylitis is an inflammation of the tendons that join the forearm muscles to the outside of the elbow. Overused and abused tendons can be damaged or even destroyed. Performing the same repetitive motions over and over again can irritate and annoy the tendons, resulting in severe pain, tenderness, and even inability to use the affected extremity.Many treatments are available for latera...
Source: The Procedural Pause - August 1, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Back-to-Basics for Strains and Sprains: ACE Wraps, Aircast, and Velcro
Simple ankle and wrist sprains and strains still need ACE wraps, Aircasts, Velcro wrist splints, or hard splints. Patients without fractures may still need assistive devices to help control their pain and place their injured extremity in a comfortable position while they heal. Hard splints (like Ortho-Glass) may be unnecessary. Appropriate splinting or hard casting, however, should be used to prevent further injury and decrease pain until follow-up. Strain, sprains, and even contusions do not need hard casting unless there is a high level of suspicion for missed injury, such as a Jones fracture, complicated avulsion inj...
Source: The Procedural Pause - July 3, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Back-to-Basics for Strains and Sprains: ACE Wraps, Aircast, and Velcro
Simple ankle and wrist sprains and strains still need ACE wraps, Aircasts, Velcro wrist splints, or hard splints. Patients without fractures may still need assistive devices to help control their pain and place their injured extremity in a comfortable position while they heal. Hard splints (like Ortho-Glass) may be unnecessary. Appropriate splinting or hard casting, however, should be used to prevent further injury and decrease pain until follow-up. Strain, sprains, and even contusions do not need hard casting unless there is a high level of suspicion for missed injury, such as a Jones fracture, complicated avulsion inj...
Source: The Procedural Pause - July 3, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Back to Basics: Splinting
Check out this quick video by Martha Roberts, NP, and Carlynne DePolo, EMT, where they show you the basics of splinting in less than five minutes.Future splinting segments will help you brush up on specialty splints and share pearls to make you a top performing clinician.Not only will splinting your own patient save you door-to-disposition time, it also guarantees to make your patient happy. Plus, you can position your patients just right, the way you want them to stay, until their follow-up. Read more about splint and cast methods and indications: http://bit.ly/2pWOzhc.Watch Ms. Roberts and Ms. DePolo talk a...
Source: The Procedural Pause - June 1, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Back to Basics: Splinting
We continue this month with our back-to-basics series on splinting. Check out this quick video by Martha Roberts, NP, and Carlynne DePolo, EMT, where they show you the basics of splinting in less than five minutes.Future splinting segments will help you brush up on specialty splints and share pearls to make you a top preforming clinician.Not only will splinting your own patient save you door-to-disposition time, it also guarantees to make your patient happy. Plus, you can position your patients just right, the way you want them to stay, until their follow-up.Watch Ms. Roberts and Ms. DePolo talk about splinting basic...
Source: The Procedural Pause - May 3, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
The Nitty-Gritty of Splinting
One of the most important things you can do as a clinician is to fix a patient’s immediate problem. Mastering certain procedures like splinting allows us to provide immediate solutions to patient problems when they arise. We all want to be masters when it comes to splinting, and here is why.EP splinting a complex distal radial fracture with the help of countertraction. stockinette, fiberglass splinting material, and ACE wrap are utilized.One of the more common mistakes NPs, PAs, and even MDs make is avoiding splinting their own patients. This means they spend less time at the bedside. If you personally splint your pat...
Source: The Procedural Pause - May 1, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Solution for Difficult Problems: Thumb Dislocation
Finger dislocations in general are relatively simple to identify and treat, but ligament, tendon, or volar plate injuries are often missed. Thumb dislocations can present with or without lacerations, and are often associated with ligamentous injuries. An injured thumb is almost always treated with splinting. Follow-up for these injuries is crucial. Radiographs are useful in locating the areas of injury and identifying avulsion fractures.Thumb dislocation in a 24-year-old man 12 hours after injury.Listen to the patient's story to identify the mechanism by which the injury occurred because mimicking this mechanism is typi...
Source: The Procedural Pause - April 1, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Solution for Difficult Problems: Thumb Dislocation
Finger dislocations in general are relatively simple to identify and treat, but ligament, tendon, or volar plate injuries are often missed. Thumb dislocations can present with or without lacerations, and are often associated with ligamentous injuries. An injured thumb is almost always treated with splinting. Follow-up for these injuries is crucial. Radiographs are useful in locating the areas of injury and identifying avulsion fractures.Thumb dislocation in a 24-year-old man 12 hours after injury.Listen to the patient's story to identify the mechanism by which the injury occurred because mimicking this mechanism is typi...
Source: The Procedural Pause - March 31, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
A Rare Intervention for an Unusual Exposure
Children like to put things in their mouth, ears, nose, and eyes. A 9-year-old boy superglued his right eye shut and came to our pediatric emergency department. He thought the glue was an over-the-counter eye lubricant and filled his entire eye with the glue.Overdoses and poisonings are a dangerous threat to children. In fact, unintentional poison overdose or ingestion has continued to claim hundreds of children's lives. More than 300 children in the United States ages 0 to 19 are seen at EDs for poisoning and two of them die each day. (CDC. April 28, 2016;
http://bit.ly/2kjVmhO.)Not all toxic exposures a...
Source: The Procedural Pause - March 1, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
A Rare Intervention for an Unusual Exposure
Children like to put things in their mouth, ears, nose, and eyes. A 9-year-old boy superglued his right eye shut and came to our pediatric emergency department. He thought the glue was an over-the-counter eye lubricant and filled his entire eye with the glue.Overdoses and poisonings are a dangerous threat to children. In fact, unintentional poison overdose or ingestion has continued to claim hundreds of children's lives. More than 300 children in the United States ages 0 to 19 are seen at EDs for poisoning and two of them die each year. (CDC. April 28, 2016; http://bit.ly/2kjVmhO.)Not all toxic exposures are i...
Source: The Procedural Pause - March 1, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
A Trick for Ocular Anesthetic
Watch Helen Karellas Bardis, NP, show off her pediatric pearl! This simple trick works well if you need to use ocular anesthetics for pediatric eye exams.Add a few drops of the saline directly onto the fluorescein paper, and then suck the fluid back up into the saline dropper. This way, you don't have to put a piece of paper onto a child's eye. It is far less scary to have drops administered.This trick also works with tetracaine/proparacaine for an all-in-one staining anesthetic.Watch the video.Tags: ocular anesthetic, eye, fluoresceinPublished: 2/25/2017 10:32:00 AM (Source: The Procedural Pause)
Source: The Procedural Pause - February 25, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
One Squeeze for Intraosseous Access
What happens in Vegas … saves lives. You thought we were going to say "stays in Vegas," right? But this is one new invention that should travel far and wide. Taking in all the wonder that is the American College of Emergency Physicians Scientific Assembly, we found many new products that piqued our interest, but we kept coming back to the PerSys New Intraosseous (NIO). Fluid replacement and stabilization during a code means everything. The time it takes to achieve patient resuscitation takes not only skills but also the appropriate tools.Overwhelming evidence shows how useful intraosseous (IO) devices are...
Source: The Procedural Pause - February 1, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
