Scenario
A 74 year old man is brought to your Emergency Department after three days of persistent vomiting.
His observations are:
Question
Describe and interpret his investigations (100%)
Results
Answer
FACEM VAQ Exam 2008.2 – Question 7
- The overall pass rate for this question was 65/81 (80.2%).
- The examiners felt that this was an excellent question yielding a wide spread of marks.
- Good answers showed a structured approach to ABG/electrolyte interpretation, made appropriate secondary calculations and recognised the complex nature of this abnormality with its possible differential diagnoses.
- Poor responses failed to recognise the metabolic and respiratory alkaloses, the raised A-a gradient (and its possible significance) and did not suggest a reasonable differential.
PDF 
About Mike Cadogan
