A Nefarious Character with an Agenda

Every new advanced nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or resident gets his fair share of complex emergency department procedures during training. Seasoned providers, however, are just as excited to place a central line in a septic patient, LP a "rule-out meningitis," or swiftly fix a nursemaid's elbow.This month we hope to remind you of a few sweet and satisfying procedures that take only moments to do. Your skill in completing these procedures is imperative. Not only will you amaze your patient, but you'll shorten your door to dispo-time.The StyeThe stye is a nefarious character with an agenda. It starts off by slowly enlarging over the patient's lid, and it can consume other portions of the face if not treated appropriately. Patients may present to the ED on the fifth day or later when the enlarged lid starts to impair their vision. Occasionally, patients have associated facial swelling, tenderness, or even a preseptal cellulitis. Distinguishing the signs of these complications is imperative for proper treatment. It may be difficult to discern the emergent eye from the urgent eye from the "it-can-wait" eye. You will feel confident about draining an eye lid abscess after reading this post, and you can add one more magic ace to your deck. The ApproachIdentification of stye (or hordeolum)Evert the lid to look for the pus collectionIf pus is readily seen, incision and drainage of styeCorrect outpatient treatments and aidesOphthalmology follow-upTh...
Source: The Procedural Pause - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs