Should Fluoro Be Your Go-to?

Part One in a Three-Part Series   How many times have you wasted at least 30 minutes (if not more) digging around in a patient’s foot to remove a sewing needle or piece of metal or glass? Or maybe the question is, how many of you have immediately referred the patient to podiatry because foreign body removal isn’t an ED procedure?   Foreign body removal may not be emergent, but it can be urgent. Items left in the skin can cause complications and should be removed whenever possible to decrease risk of infection or other future issues.   Foreign body of the left foot in a 56-year-old woman.   The ED is the right place to do any and all procedures under the constraints of your medical license and hospital policies. Often times, specialists can complete procedures in-house or with a prompt follow-up appointment. Other times they are unavailable, in surgery, or too expensive, so you need an alternative plan. Patients only want to make one stop, especially if they are without health insurance, fiscal means, or a home. Then again, you could do this procedure for just about anyone and feel confident about it.   First, we must pause and discuss one extremely important recommendation that comes directly from the American College of Radiology (ACR). The 2013 technical standards for using fluoroscopy are specific and detailed for a reason. Radiation exposure is a big deal, and it can have lasting, catastrophic, and stochastic effects on patients, especially children. ...
Source: The Procedural Pause - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs