When excessive cerumen causes pain, hearing loss, vertigo, or disequilibrium, it must be removed. Another indication for removal is when it obscures visualization of a symptomatic tympanic membrane. Irrigation and…
CHAPTER 15 Contact Lens Complications Presentation A patient who wears hard, impermeable, or rigid gas permeable contact lenses comes to the emergency department in the early morning complaining of severe…
CHAPTER 106 Coccyx Fracture (Tailbone Fracture) Presentation The patient slipped and fell on his buttocks or tailbone, was kicked or injured during an athletic activity, directly impacting the sacrococcygeal synchondrosis,…
CHAPTER 74 Innocuous Ingestions Presentation Frightened parents call or arrive in the ED or clinic with a 2-year-old child who has just swallowed some household product, such as laundry bleach….
CHAPTER 121 Muscle Cramps (Charley Horse) Presentation The patient complains of painful, visible, palpable muscle contractions, often affecting the gastrocnemius muscle or small muscles of the foot or hand. Ordinary…
CHAPTER 112 Flexor Digitorum Profundus Tendon Avulsion—Distal Phalanx (Splay Finger) Presentation The patient has injured his finger tip by falling backward and striking it on the floor or hitting it…
CHAPTER 62 Costochondritis and Musculoskeletal Chest Pain Presentation The patient, usually between the ages of 15 and 39, complains of a day or more of steady aching with intermittent stabbing…
CHAPTER 89 Contact Vulvovaginitis Presentation Patients complain of severe vulvar itching that may be accompanied by edematous swelling. Occasionally, there will be tenderness, pain, burning, and dysuria severe enough to…
CHAPTER 82 Prostatitis, Acute Bacterial Presentation A man complains of acute onset of malaise, fever, chills, and perineal or low back pain. He also may have dysuria, urinary urgency and…
CHAPTER 64 Irritant Incapacitant Exposure (Lacrimators, Riot Control Agents, Tear Gas) Presentation The patient may have been sprayed with tear gas (e.g., Mace) during a riot being dispersed by the…
