Balloon Tamponade for the Management of Gastrointestinal Bleeding.

Background: Acute gastrointestinal bleeding is a potentially life-threatening condition that requires rapid intervention. In critically ill patients who are refractory to other therapies, balloon tamponade devices can be lifesaving.

Objective: We provide a review of balloon tamponade devices for gastric and esophageal variceal bleeding for emergency clinicians.

Cryptococcal meningitis: a review for emergency clinicians.

Introduction: Cryptococcal Meningitis (CM) remains a high-risk clinical condition, and many patients require emergency department (ED) management for complications and stabilization.

Objective: This narrative review provides an evidence-based summary of the current data for the emergency medicine evaluation and management of CM.

Discussion: This review evaluates the diagnosis, management, and empiric treatment of suspected CM in the ED.

Electrocardiographic manifestations of COVID-19.

Introduction: Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) is a lower respiratory tract infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This disease can impact the cardiovascular system and lead to abnormal electrocardiographic (ECG) findings. Emergency clinicians must be aware of the ECG manifestations of COVID-19.

Double external defibrillation for shock-refractory ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest: A step towards standardization.

Double (or dual) external defibrillation (DED) has increasingly been used in the last few years by a number of emergency medical services (EMS) as a last resort to terminate ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia in adult patients who remain refractory to standard defibrillation. However, no randomized controlled trials comparing DED with standard defibrillation focusing on patient-oriented outcomes as the primary objective have been published to date. Selection criteria, procedure techniques, and protocol are not clearly defined and vary across observational studies.

Plastic Surgery Complications: A Review for Emergency Clinicians.

The number of aesthetic surgical procedures performed in the United States is increasing rapidly. Over 1.5 million surgical procedures and over three million nonsurgical procedures were performed in 2015 alone.

Fournier Gangrene in the Emergency Department: Diagnostic Dilemmas, Treatments and Current Perspectives.

Fournier gangrene (FG) is a rare and life-threatening urosurgical emergency characterized most often by a polymicrobial infection of the perineal, genital, or perianal region. FG has an increased incidence in male patients, patients with alcoholism, and patients with immunocompromise including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and uncontrolled diabetes. FG often begins as a simple abscess or cellulitis with progression to necrotizing soft tissue infection (NSTI).

Initial emergency department mechanical ventilation strategies for COVID-19 hypoxemic respiratory failure and ARDS.

Introduction: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an emerging viral pathogen that causes the novel coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) and may result in hypoxemic respiratory failure necessitating invasive mechanical ventilation in the most severe cases.

Objective: This narrative review provides evidence-based recommendations for the treatment of COVID-19 related respiratory failure requiring invasive mechanical ventilation.

Discussion: In severe cases, COVID-19 leads to hypoxemic respiratory failure that may meet criteria for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

COVID-19 respiratory support in the emergency department setting.

Introduction: Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), may result in severe complications, multiorgan dysfunction, acute respiratory failure, and death. SARS-CoV-2 is highly contagious and places healthcare workers at significant risk, especially during aerosol-generating procedures, including airway management.

Objective: This narrative review outlines the underlying respiratory pathophysiology of patients with COVID-19 and discusses approaches to airway management in the emergency department (ED) based on current literature.

COVID-19 cardiac arrest management: A review for emergency clinicians.

Introduction: A great deal of literature has recently discussed the evaluation and management of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) patient in the emergency department (ED) setting, but there remains a dearth of literature providing guidance on cardiac arrest management in this population.

Objective: This narrative review outlines the underlying pathophysiology of patients with COVID-19 and discusses approaches to cardiac arrest management in the ED based on the current literature as well as extrapolations from experience with other pathogens.

Discussion: Patients with COVID-19 may experience cardiovascular manifestations that place them at risk for acute myocardial injury, arrhythmias, and cardiac arrest.

Dual Defibrillation is Highly Variable: An Analysis of Pulse Interval Delivered in Dual Defibrillation.

Dual defibrillation (DD) is a technique where two external defibrillators are applied with two different pad configurations and discharged to treat refractory ventricular fibrillation (RVF). Although commonly called dual sequential defibrillation (DSD), if the delivered electrical pulses overlap with no pulse interval, the shocks are actually dual simultaneous defibrillation (DSiD). Manual DD technique is not standardized and the effect that the method of activation has on the delivered pulse interval has never been studied.