Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog
Emergency Medicine education blog
A 23 year-old female netball player presents c/o pain and swelling to her right ankle post playing netball. The patients states she landed heavily, inverting her right ankle after jumping up to defend a goal shot, but was able to play on for another 2-3 minutes before the pain, and swelling became uncomfortable. The patients hobbles into minor injuries room, were you elevate the leg, and provided ice, analgesia, and start to wonder if she meets the criteria for X-ray to rule out a fracture?
We recap another year of living in the fast lane as 2010 comes to a close and present LITFL’s Greatest Hits of 2010.
It would be fascinating to run a fly-on-the-wall documentary on life at trolley level in a local Emergency Department. When you’ve been there, done it and survived to watch TV again, the dramatised version served up in your average medical soap is about as true to life as Harry Potter. Someone will just have to come up with ED-trolleycam. The MicroGnome was left under no illusions when struck down with a travel-related infection following a week with the Lab Without Walls in East Timor. He became a victim of the Four R Rule:
Methylhexaneamine C7H17N was originally intended to be used as a nasal decongestant but in recent times it has found its way into dietary supplements marketed with thermogenic or stimulant properties. It can certainly be a tricky substance to locate in the ‘ingredients’ section of over the counter (OTC) energy products and while it is banned in sport, it is still legal in dietary supplements – making it even more tricky to monitor
A teenager in atrial fibrillation… A worrying family history… A very unusual looking ECG… Can you put together the pieces of the puzzle?
USC Essentials videos are now online for subscribers. here is a free sample: Rob Roger’s presenting Visual Diagnosis Fun.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a list of the 100 most important papers published in the emergency medicine literature… with article summaries provided. Now, that’s an idea…
The story of Alastair Coutts and Bob Eason as they try to save a dying patient in a small wooden hut in the Solomon islands with only basic equipment and a little help from Jesus.
Excitement is building as the the post-prandial somnolence evolves into austere reverence as the the Utopian College Council start the protracted process of sobering up in time to announce the inaugural New Years Day Honours list. This year 50 new individuals will be officially recognised as Fellows of the College.
