Acute mental status changes after the ingestion of alcohol or other substances are a common presentation to the ED. Those with severe obtundation may require intubation for airway protection while the substance metabolizes. In fact, more than 20,000 patients are intubated each year in the United States for acute poisoning or intoxication. Notwithstanding, intubation and mechanical ventilation are not benign procedures. In this podcast we discuss the recently published NICO Trial, that evaluated a strategy of withholding intubation in patients with coma due to acute poisoning.
Approximately 75% of patients older than 65 years of age are seen in an ED within 6 months of their death. While palliative care...
The use of tranexamic acid (TXA) has markedly increased since the results of the CRASH-II trial were published. In addition to its use in...
Up to one-third of patients with status epilepticus will not respond to benzodiazepines. Unfortunately, treatment of benzodiazepine-refractory status epilepticus is not well studied. The...