Undifferentiated patients in respiratory distress require immediate attention in the emergency department. Using a thorough history and clinical examination, clinicians can determine the most likely causes of dyspnea. Understanding the…
Patients in respiratory distress often require airway management, including endotracheal intubation. It takes a methodical approach to transition from an unstable patient in distress with an unsecured airway, to a…
Mechanical ventilation has a long and storied history, but until recently the process required little from the emergency physician. In the modern emergency department, critically ill patients spend a longer…
Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) improves oxygenation and ventilation, prevents endotracheal intubation, and decreases the mortality rate in select patients with acute respiratory failure. Although NIV is used commonly for acute exacerbations…
Acute dyspnea in older patients is a common presentation to the emergency department. Acute dyspnea in older adults is often the consequence of multiple overlapping disorders, such as pneumonia precipitating…
Acute asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations are the most common respiratory diseases requiring emergent medical evaluation and treatment. Asthma and COPD are chronic, debilitating disease processes that…
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is defined by acute diffuse inflammatory lung injury invoked by a variety of systemic or pulmonary insults. Despite medical progress in management, mortality remains 27%…
There is an epidemic of opioid abuse. This article discusses the history of opioid use. Abusers of opioids are at great risk of harm. There have been increasing legislative efforts…
Emergency department providers have become skilled at triaging patients with abdominal pain requiring surgical interventions. Abdominal pain mimics, medical conditions that cause the sensation of abdominal pain without abdominal abnormality,…
Obesity is present in epidemic proportions in the United States, and bariatric surgery has become more common. Thus, emergency physicians will undoubtedly encounter many patients who have undergone one of…
