Archives: BETs

A 13-year-old girl with a shoulder dislocation presents to your ED. You plan to reduce it using ketamine sedation but know that ketamine can cause emergence phenomenon in this age group. You wonder if you should use prophylactic midazolam to reduce the risk of this side effect.

A two day old term neonate with meconium aspiration syndrome is on mechanical ventilation in a level III neonatal unit. He is diagnosed to have PPHN with a possibility to remain on the ventilator at least for another 24 hours. We know that dexmedetomidine is used in the paediatric intensive care units for sedation. But, can it be used in neonates? Is it more effective and safe compared to standard sedatives?

You arrive at a crash call on the ward. CPR is in progress and you are asked to manage the airway, but you are not trained in placing endotracheal tubes. You have been told that i-gels are easy to place but are unsure whether an LMA may be a more reliable way of securing the patient's airway. Which supraglottic airway device should you reach for?

You are seeing a 2 year old boy who has been non-weightbearing since sustaining a twisting injury whilst running. X-ray has revealed a toddler fracture of his left tibia (non-displaced spiral fracture). You are planning to place him in an above knee backslab but when you explain this to his mother she becomes upset because she feels this will be very distressing to him. You wonder if there are any other treatment options.

A 65-year-old man is found by passers by on a riverside path. He is unresponsive and not breathing. The bystanders ring 999 but do not attempt CPR. The patient has persistent asystole, no return of spontaneous circulation, and is declared dead. Would DA-CPR, or coaching from another trained third party have increased the odds of a favourable outcome?

A neonate of 41 weeks gestation was born through Meconium Stained Amniotic Fluid (MSAF). Mild tachypnea was noted at 1 and 5 minutes, that did not respond to gentle stimulation and wiping of the mouth. Subsequently, intratracheal suctioning was performed with resolution of respiratory distress after brief NICU observation.

40 year old gentleman presents to your emergency department complaining of chest pain. After a full work up, there is no evidence of cardiac pathology, but the patient remains very anxious and distressed. Looking through the notes, you see that this is the third time this month he has visited your ED for chest pain, despite having had angiography some months ago which was reported as normal. You wonder if you can offer anything to this patient to help him understand his symptoms.

You are working in A&E and review a patient with suspected poisoning or overdose, you are unclear of the identity of the substance so can not yet confidently consult the local toxicology database but are aware of the occasional need for intubation in such patients to maintain a safe airway and oxygenation. You wonder if there are any other clinical risk factors or predictors indicative of need for endotracheal intubation in poisoned patients which you could use to support your decision to intubate or not.

As attending physisian in the cardiac arrest team your patient suddenly shows signs of awareness as CPR is performed even though spontaneus circulation is still not returning. Besides the ethical and communicative issues rising in your head, you wonder how you and the team should approach pain management and sedation while continuing cpr.

A 22-year-old football player presents with a soft tissue injury to the ankle sustained earlier that same day while training. You suspect he has injured the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL), but the acute clinical picture is confusing because of pain and swelling. You have access to diagnostic ultrasound (USS) to assess the integrity of the lateral ligament complex and want to know if this will give you an accurate diagnosis comparable to that of MRI.

A 62-year-old woman presents to the emergency department (ED) with difficulty walking due to five hours of constant vertigo. The dizziness is worse with head motion and better with her eyes closed. She has vomited twice but has no headache or other complaints. Her workup, including a CT scan, is negative. The patient remains ataxic despite meclizine and so she is admitted with diagnosis of peripheral vertigo. An MRI was done the following day shows a large cerebellar stroke. As the treating physician, you wonder how often the diagnosis of stroke is not recognized in the ED.

A neonate of 41 weeks gestation was born through Meconium Stained Amniotic Fluid (MSAF) subsequently developing MAS necessitating invasive ventilation in the NICU.

A 36yr old male patient is found at home in cardiac arrest. Initial ECG shows PEA and the resus is continued for 20 mins with one episode of VF but no ROSC. The decision is made to take him to the nearest A&E but there is no improvement and he pronounced dead in A&E. You wonder if being able to perform cardiac ultrasound would have helped the decision to continue or terminate the resus

A 6-week-old presents to the emergency department with respiratory distress with no significant clinical findings suggesting a cardiac or respiratory cause at this point in time. You plan to take bloods and wonder whether Brain Natriuretic peptide (BNP) would be a useful biomarker to detect cardiac disease in this case.

A 26 year old primigravida at 31 weeks gestation presents to the Emergency Department with shortness of breath and pleuritic chest pain. She is apyrexial, has a respiratory rate of 26, a heart rate of 110 and oxygen saturation of 95% on room air. There is no evidence of leg pain or swelling. Her ECG is normal and you are awaiting the report of her chest X-Ray. You suspect a pulmonary embolism (PE)- which imaging should you order next?

You are evaluating a pediatric patient in the emergency department in whom you are considering the diagnosis of acute community-acquired bacterial meningitis. You perform a lumbar puncture and when ordering CSF studies wonder if sending a CSF lactate would help distinguish acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) from acute viral meningitis (AVM).