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.
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...
More than 1.5 million patients undergo endotracheal intubation each year in the U.S. Endotracheal intubation can be complicated by hypoxemia, which is a known...
Bryan Hayes is back! In this podcast, we discuss pitfalls in the use of benzodiazpines along with current evidence on adjunctive treatments including propofol,...