All in Residency

Flu season. It's that magical time of year that brings an unrelenting wave of patients to the ED. In this EMEd lecture we review an algorithmic approach to these patients. It's important to always consider the life threatening infections before anchoring on a viral etiology. Be hyper vigilant if your patient has a wild card like immunosuppression.

Your patient presents with right upper quadrant abdominal pain. The Liver function tests, lipase, and right upper quadrant ultrasound have all be ordered. Be sure to have a clear understanding to do with the data when it comes back. In this EMEd lecture we review biliary problems. We review the diagnostic criteria and treatment strategy for symptomatic cholelithiasis, acute cholecystitis, choledocholithiasis, gallstone pancreatitis, and cholangitis.

In this lecture we present the approach to a patient with a chief complaint of shortness of breath. We start by reviewing the chief complaint for shortness of breath. Next we discuss how to assess for the degree of respiratory distress the patient is in. Finally we discuss how the degree of respiratory distress determines what resuscitative steps the provider will take.