Category Archives: Emergency Medicine

Living on the Edge: Critical Lessons from Extreme Physiology

I’ve created a fixed page for this presentation and the reference materials, so that I can add to the thoughts and resources over time.  You can access the permanent page with all the references here.

 Living on the Edge

Presentation for SASA Western Cape Anaesthesiology Update in April 2017, and a repository for materials on the topic.

Access the presentation here if it is not displated above.

References:

MCSA/ICAR/WSAR Mountain Medicine Workshop 2016 Presentations

As promised, open access to my two talks from the Mountain Medicine Workshop hosted at the MCSA in Cape Town, 2 May 2016.  Please feel free to use for reference, or direct questions to me!

Austere & Confined Space Airway Management:

Practical Wilderness Analgesia:

Invasive blood pressure monitoring in the aeromedical setting

Presentation for the Red Cross Air Mercy Service (where I am a regular volunteer flight doctor) today.  One of these days I will get around to narrating all these Prezi talks.  My friend a colleague Jo Park-Ross from AMS and #badEM has made a video podcast of the talk – will post the link when it is up and running. 

Airway Pathology Pic-of-the-Week – 2014_0811

I got a good response to a missive sent out via email, so we are trying this again. This is what I sent previously:

Vocal cord papilloma

Numerous people responded correctly. It is indeed a papilloma, which was causing variable obstruction as it swung back and forth through the vocal cords on it’s pedicle. It was managed by videolaryngoscopic intubation with a microlaryngoscopy tube (MLT) followed by surgical debulking by the ENT. Here is a nice simple summary of MLTs and other special ETTs used in ENT surgery, although they erroneously attribute the acronym RAE.  Click here for more about ETTS and to see the correct source.

Pic for this week:

AirwayPath_2014_0811
This is a bronchoscopic view from the mid-tracheal level in an infant. Can you tell:
A) What is going on here?
B) Is there a classification system for this pathology, and can you fit this case into it?
C) What is the main challenge and advised technique for dealing with this airway?

Let me know if this is interesting/useful 😉

ICU Resource Allocation in the New Millenium

“Will We Say No?”

Released this month by Springer, edited by Dr David Crippen, a neurointensivist and the “Fearless Leader” of CCM-L (the International Critical Care Mailing List and discussion group) and including two chapter on ICU in South Africa, in the past, present and looking towards the future.  I am particularly proud to have contributed the latter (Chapter 22).

Continue reading ICU Resource Allocation in the New Millenium

Clinical Ultrasound – Collection of links

The basis for this list came out of a post on the Critical Care Mailing List (CCM-L), and I don’t have info on who originally created it, but it’s too good not to share.  Most of these are orientated toward emergency medicine, but will be appreciated by all disciplines.  (Ok, maybe not dermatology, but you never know…)  I’ll try to update it when I stumble across more, so if you know of others, forward them to me or comment below.  Enjoy!

  • ACEP US Section – for all the needs of emergency physicians who perform US, credential others, direct US programs and much more!
  • SAEM US Academy – is a community within the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine. AEUS provides an international forum bringing together bedside clinician sonologists with the common goal of advancing patient care
  • Bedside US and the Stanford 25 – The Stanford 25 is a list of 25 dependent physical diagnosis maneuvers to help with the physical exam and medical education, one of which is bedside US
  • Society of US in Medical Education – this link takes you to the learning modules, but if you press “Home” you will see how amazing this society is for enhancing US education.
  • Emergency Ultrasonography – this site is a great go-to for providing the foundation for a basic understanding of Emergency Ultrasound through lectures, modules, testing
  • EMSono – a great site which is a comprehensive emergency ultrasound education website that also provides you with free teaching modules through the SonoBridge. It also provides the ACEP test for bedside US.
  • iTunes Podcasts on Emergency Ultrasound – Great notes on a broad range of topics by J. Christian Fox, MD.
  • SonoGuide – An excellent free online site to learn all that there is to know with regard to bedside US
  • SonoSpot – Topics in bedside ultrasound
  • SoundBytes – a great CME download and set of lectures !
  • Ultrasound Podcast – a very fun and cool way to learn bedside US through two very funny guys!
  • Ultrasound SHARE – a great site for a library for all the US videos/images you ever want to see!
  • US Guided Nerve Blocks – a complete source for all you want to know in regard to US guided Nerve blocks.
  • ViewSono – great video tutorials (short format case based), reviews of core ultrasound procedures in emergency medicine, critical care and regional anesthesia
  • Vimeo US images and videos – an awesome site to see every US related video you’ll ever want to see!

There are quite a few smart phone apps and iTunes videos that can help while you are on the run, train, plane, or riding in the back of a Harley:

If you’re the original creator of this list, please let me know so I can credit you!

New aeromedical presentations available

I’ve uploaded another two talks onto the ‘Presentations’ page.  These are lectures I gave recently as part of the ILS Aviation Health Care Practitioner’s course at the Red Cross Air Mercy Service here in Cape Town.  The should be considered introductory, and there is a lot of (verbal) content not in the presentations, but the framework may be of interest.  I’m getting more familiar with using Prezi and liking it more every time.  Click the arrows to advance or rewind through my sequence.  FYI – You can click, drag and zoom freely at any time, and return to the sequence by clicking on the arrows again.  Enjoy!

 

2011 EMSSA Emergency Medicine in the Developing World Congress

…just finished in Cape Town today. I was fortunate to present on the pre-conference airway course, and then attend the rest for the last 3 day. The full collection of presentations will be made available later on freeemergencytalks.net, but in the meantime, click here to download my rough notes (PDF):  EMSSA 2011 – Very Rough Notes

A taste of the airway course magic (or madness?):

(Demonstrating self-laryngoscopy with the King Video Laryngoscope)