The newest edition of TraumaMedEd is here! It’s all about fatigue, which affects all trauma professionals. Click the picture or the link below to download your copy as a PDF file. Feel free to email or comment with suggestions for topics in future newsletters.
If you would like new issues delivered directly via email, click here.
Links:
The newest edition of TraumaMedEd is here! Click the picture or the link below to download your copy as a PDF file. Feel free to email or comment with suggestions for topics in future newsletters.
If you would like new issues delivered directly via email, click here.
Links:
Not Your Usual Pneumothorax?
You’ve been called to the ED to see a patient with a “spontaneous pneumothorax”, but once you meet him you see that he doesn’t fit the classic profile (tall, slim male). What gives?
After closer questioning, he admits to have been smoking crack cocaine at the time. Freak coincidence?
There are a number of case reports dating from 1984 describing this association. A number of reasons have been cited:
I’ve seen this presentation about 5 times in my career. I always ask about drug use so I can ensure that a chemical dependency screen is ordered.
Reference: Pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum, and pneumopericardium following Valsalva’s maneuver during marijuana smoking. N Y State J Med 84(12):619-20, 1984.
What The Heck? Answer!
The patient was a 27 year old intoxicated male who was uncooperative with police in France. The offending object is a Taser dart, which was fired at him for control. The dart was not noticed when he was released from custody, and he later presented to hospital with a headache! The dart was removed by a neurosurgeon and he was discharged uneventfully a week later.
Reference: A brain penetration after Taser injury: controversies regarding Taser gun safety. Forensic Science International, ePub 21 April 2012 ahead of print.
What The Heck?
What is the foreign object seen in this head CT? Hint: the patient has not been seen by a neurosurgeon. Yet.