Articles related to Emergency Medicine

The CDC has released updated guidelines for prescribing opioids. The newest guidelines focus on patient-centered decisions and reduce some limitations on prescribing that were put in place back in 2016. The updated guidance recognizes the ongoing increase in opioid-related deaths, but seeks to give physicians and patients more direction in managing individual therapy.

A 56-year-old man has had right-upper-quadrant abdominal pain for several months but is otherwise healthy. He does not drink alcohol, has not been exposed to other hepatotoxins, and takes no medications. On physical examination, vital signs are normal. Abdominal examination reveals hepatosplenomegaly. The remainder of the physical exam is normal. What would you do?

A new cohort study has found physical, mental, and cognitive symptoms in patients one year after being treated in an intensive care unit (ICU) for COVID-19. The study involved an exploratory multicenter prospective cohort study that included 246 patients who were alive one year following ICU treatment for COVID-19. Three-quarters of patients reported physical symptoms, 1/4 reported mental symptoms, and about 15% reported cognitive symptoms a year after being hospitalized with the respiratory illness.

A proposed six-step approach to making sense of arterial blood gas (ABG) labs. This six-step process with simple table support helps ensure a complete and understandable interpretation of every ABG.

Although there now exist many safe and approved therapeutics for non-hospitalized patients who have COVID-19 or one of its variants, these therapies are often distributed in an ineffective and unequitable manner, according to an article published by JAMA Network. The article highlights many of the available therapies and how to distribute them fairly to patients when demand exceeds available supply.

A study published in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine puts forward a new and systematic approach to diagnosing and managing orthostatic hypotension. The article notes that current approaches to evaluating and managing the disease are based on limited data, but that patients would benefit from more consistent diagnosis and treatment methods.