A 76 year old diabetic is referred with confusion and is being treated for a UTI. She is tachycardic and drowsy, is there more than sepsis?…
An Unexpected Twist
A 67-year-old lady presents to the Emergency Department with mild wheeze, frontal headache, fever and vomiting. She is hypotensive and tachycardic. You arrange to see her in Resus.…
Not Sweet Enough
A 63-year-old female with a background of type I diabetes mellitus, chronic pancreatitis and COPD presents to the ED with confusion and hypoglycaemia.…
Salicylic Stress
Paul, a 52 year old electrician, has been in your department for three and a half hours with a presenting complaint of abdominal pain…
Delirium; a source of confusion in the ED
An 84-year-old lady attends the ED unaccompanied in the middle of the night. She is very confused, agitated and becomes aggressive towards the staff…
A Toxic Slip
A 65-year-old man with a background of osteoarthritis presents to the Emergency Department with left hip pain following a fall…
A real crisis
You see a 20-year-old student in resus with vomiting. She is drowsy and incoherent so you are unable to get much information…
A Hypertensive Emergency
A 56-year-old man presents to the Emergency Department with chest pain. It was fairly abrupt in onset whilst he was digging in the garden and was associated with a brief episode of collapse…
Acute Alcohol Withdrawal
Alcohol withdrawal is a common presentation to UK EDs and patients can present significant management challenges to clinicians…
The Mental Health Act and Emergency Medicine
Approximately 10% of all admissions to the Emergency Department (ED) are related to patients having a mental health crisis. With the ever increasing numbers of patients requiring mental health input,…
Making Sepsis Sixy
Everyones talking about sepsis lately, but do you know what to do?…
Heat Stroke
Management of Heat Stroke in Emergency Department…
Spells of confusion
A 69 year old gentleman presented to the emergency department with odd periods of vacancy and confusion, each lasting 20 to 30 seconds.…
Acute Alcohol Withdrawal
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is defined by the World Health Organisation as consuming more than 40g/day of alcohol for males and 30mg/day of alcohol for females…
Another faller!
Another faller presents to your emergency department. Confused and smelling of alcohol. What will you do? How can you avoid missing the common pitfalls?…
RCEM Blogs Book 1
Managing Parkinsons in the ED, Flaoting in the Face of Danger, MaxFax injuries in the E, and Paediatric Heart Murmurs & what to do with them…
Delirium in the Elderly
Delirium (acute confusional state) is common in hospital medicine. In the elderly, the prevalence of delirium ranges from 11%-42%.…
Managing Parkinson’s in the ED
Your patient is a 70 year old lady with a history of type 2 diabetes and Parkinsons disease, for which she is on a number of medications…
Hypoxic drive: Fact or fiction?
So youre in the Emergency Department when a medical alert arrives. Hes tachypnoeic, tachycardic and visibly cyanotic with saturations of 75% on room air…
Causes of unconsciousness
Reduced conscious level is a common finding in the ED…