The history of observation medicine has paralleled the rise of emergency medicine over the past 50 years to meet the needs of patients, emergency departments, hospitals, and the US health care…

Amal Mattu, MD, FAAEM, FACEP, Consulting Editor In the immortal words of Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changin’.” I recall a time earlier in my career when we were…

Acute ischemic stroke carries the risk of morbidity and mortality. Since the advent of intravenous thrombolysis, there have been improvements in stroke care and functional outcomes. Studies of populations once…

Acute limb ischemia is a medical emergency with significant morbidity and mortality. Rapid diagnosis is required because it is a time-sensitive condition. Timely treatment is necessary to restore blood flow…

Mesenteric ischemia has 4 etiologies: arterial embolus, arterial thrombosis, venous thrombosis, and nonocclusive. No history or physical examination finding can definitively diagnose the condition. A wide variety of presentations occur….

This article discusses abdominal aortic emergencies. There is a common thread of risk factors and causes of these diseases, including age, male gender, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and connective tissue disorders. The…

Although commonly arising from poorly controlled hypertension, spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage may occur secondary to several other etiologies. Clinical presentation to the emergency department ranges from headache with vomiting to coma….

Headache is a common emergency department chief complaint. Although most are benign, emergency physicians must rapidly identify and manage the uncommon, sometimes subtle, presentation of headache from a life-threatening cause….

Penetrating vascular injury is becoming increasingly common in the United States and abroad. Much of the current research and treatment is derived from wartime and translation to the civilian sector…

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a neurologic emergency due to bleeding into the subarachnoid space. Mortality can reach 50%. The clinical presentation is most often in the form of headache, classically…