Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Traumatic Injuries to the Spinal Cord and Peripheral Nervous System
Both blunt and penetrating trauma can cause injuries to the peripheral and central nervous systems. Emergency providers must maintain a high index of suspicion, especially in the setting of polytrauma. There are 2 major classifications of peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs). Some PNIs are classically associated with certain traumatic mechanisms. Most closed PNIs are managed conservatively, whereas sharp nerve transections require specialist consultation for urgent repair. Spinal cord injuries almost universally require computed tomography imaging; some require emergent magnetic resonance imaging. Providers should work to mini...
Source: Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America - November 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Lucas Sjeklocha, J. David Gatz Source Type: research

Modern Neuroimaging Techniques in Diagnosing Transient Ischemic Attack and Acute Ischemic Stroke
Neuroimaging should be obtained for all patients suspected of having acute ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack. Noncontrast head computed tomography (CT) scans are used to exclude hemorrhage, evaluate for early brain injury, and exclude stroke mimics. CT angiography assists in identifying proximal vessel occlusions, dissection, or high-grade arterial stenoses. Additional imaging techniques have emerged to improve selection of patients likely to benefit from therapies. Artificial intelligence applications assist in acute stroke imaging assessment, identifying acute hemorrhage, and predicting risk of endovascular in...
Source: Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America - November 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Karen Greenberg, Julie Bykowski Source Type: research

Neurologic Emergencies at the Extremes of Age
The diagnosis and management of neurologic conditions are more complex at the extremes of age than in the average adult. In the pediatric population, neurologic emergencies are somewhat rare and some may require emergent consultation. In older adults, geriatric physiologic changes with increased comorbidities leads to atypical presentations and worsened outcomes. The unique considerations regarding emergency department presentation and management of stroke and altered mental status in both age groups is discussed, in addition to seizures and intracranial hemorrhage in pediatrics, and Parkinson's disease and meningitis in t...
Source: Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America - November 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Danya Khoujah, Megan J. Cobb Source Type: research

Headache in the Emergency Department
In the initial assessment of the headache patient, the emergency physician must consider several dangerous secondary causes of headache. A thorough history and physical examination, along with consideration of a comprehensive differential diagnosis may alert the emergency physician to the diagnosis of a secondary headache particularly when the history is accompanied by any of the following clinical features: sudden/severe onset, focal neurologic deficits, altered mental status, advanced age, active or recent pregnancy, coagulopathy, malignancy, fever, visual deficits, and/or loss of consciousness. (Source: Emergency Medici...
Source: Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America - November 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Ryan Raam, Ramin R. Tabatabai Source Type: research

Functional Seizures
Functional or psychogenic seizures have proved a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for centuries. Functional seizures can look and feel similar to epileptic seizures but are instead a common and highly disabling form of functional neurologic disorder, or conversion disorder. Consistent with the biopsychosocial model of mental illness, functional seizures are caused by biological, psychological, and social factors unrelated to epileptic discharges. People with functional seizures do not consciously fake their symptoms. Functional seizures can be differentiated from epileptic seizures through the clinical history, feature...
Source: Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America - November 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Evie Marcolini, Benjamin Tolchin Source Type: research