News Archives: Trauma / ICU

From The Trauma Professional’s Blog, originally posted May 2013 Our patient with the steak knife to the head has been evaluated by CT. The scan shows that the blade enters the right orbit, passing through the medial orbital wall into … Continue reading →

From The Trauma Professional’s Blog, originally posted May 2013 So our patient has presented to your ED, on foot, with a steak knife sticking out of his head! You’ve activated your trauma team, so now what do you do? As … Continue reading →

From The Trauma Professional’s Blog, originally posted May 2013 Yesterday I presented the case of a young man who shows up at the triage desk in your ED with “something wrong with his head.” I showed an AP skull film, … Continue reading →

From The Trauma Professional’s Blog, originally posted May 2013 A young man presents to your emergency department walk-in area. Something is wrong with his head. Here is an AP skull film (when is the last time you got one of … Continue reading →

From The Trauma Professional’s Blog, originally posted May 2013 A 24 year old restrained female is involved in a T-bone type motor vehicle crash. She sustains a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury and is intubated and sedated. On exam, … Continue reading →

From The Trauma Professional’s Blog, originally posted May 2013 Ever wonder how interventional radiologists stop bleeding? They are very skilled in getting access to complicated areas of the arterial tree. Once they have located a bleeding point, they’ve got to … Continue reading →

From The Trauma Professional’s Blog, originally posted April 2013 In my last post, I discussed the Passy-Muir valve, which allows patients who have a tracheostomy tube in place, and are not on a ventilator, to talk. But what about patients … Continue reading →

From The Trauma Professional’s Blog, originally posted April 2013 Some critically injured patients undergo tracheostomy due to prolonged ventilatory failure. As they recover, the trach tube is usually downsized over time until it can be permanently removed. Unfortunately, this process … Continue reading →

From The Trauma Professional’s Blog, originally posted April 2013 Diagnostic imaging is a mainstay in diagnosing injuries in major trauma patients. But the big questions are, how much is enough and how much is too much? X-radiation is invisible but … Continue reading →

From The Trauma Professional’s Blog, originally posted April 2013 Time for a little philosophy today. There seem to be two camps in the world of initial diagnostic testing for trauma: selective scanning vs scan everything. I admit that I am … Continue reading →