14 Emergency Medicine
“Before running the code, check your own pulse” – Dr Paul L. Bernstein, Rochester, NY 14.1 Basic Life Support When a person is found unresponsive: aIn patients found unresponsive with…
EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Novel Treatments for Transient Ischemic Attack and Acute Ischemic Stroke
The treatment of acute ischemic stroke is one of the most rapidly evolving areas in medicine. Like all ischemic vascular emergencies, the priority is reperfusion before irreversible infarction. The central…
NeuroEthics and End of Life Care
The emergency department is where the patient and potential ethical challenges are first encountered. Patients with acute neurologic illness introduce a unique set of dilemmas related to the pressure for…
Sedation for Rapid Sequence Induction and Intubation of Neurologically Injured Patients
There are subtle physiologic and pharmacologic principles that should be understood for patients with neurologic injuries. These principles are especially true for managing patients with traumatic brain injuries. Prevention of…
Diagnosis of Patients with Acute Dizziness
Using an algorithmic approach to acutely dizzy patients, physicians can often confidently make a specific diagnosis that leads to correct treatment and should reduce the misdiagnosis of cerebrovascular events. Emergency…
Approach to Acute Weakness
Weakness has a broad differential diagnosis. A paradigm for organizing possibilities is to consider what part of the nervous system is involved, ranging from brain, spinal cord, nerve roots, and…
Diagnosis of Coma
The differential diagnosis for the comatose patient is includes structural abnormality, seizure, encephalitis, metabolic derangements, and toxicologic etiologies. Identifying and treating the underlying pathology in a timely manner is critical…
Emergency Neuropharmacology
Management of acute neurologic disorders in the emergency department is multimodal and may require the use of medications to decrease morbidity and mortality secondary to neurologic injury. Clinicians should form…
Functional Seizures
Functional or psychogenic seizures have proved a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for centuries. Functional seizures can look and feel similar to epileptic seizures but are instead a common and highly…
Central Nervous System Infections in the Immunocompromised Adult Presenting to the Emergency Department
Over the past 2 decades, the population of immunocompromised patients has increased dramatically in the United States. These patients are at elevated risk for both community-acquired and opportunistic central nervous system…