I really need to get back to posting on here, if only to cultivate a source of teaching points as I transition into our PGY-3 role where we’re supposed to teach the oncoming team something at the beginning of every shift. So, with that in mind, will try to re-dedicate myself to producing some content.

Until then, I wanted to post a brief review of two great books that I spent my “Educational Stipend” fund on this spring and have finished most of:

1.) Avoiding Common Errors in the Emergency Department – Amal Mattu  et al.

This is the second edition of a book that I originally found in medical school. The revised edition is significantly-expanded compared the original, with almost a complete rewrite of the content. There are 365 unique, short chapters focusing on “common errors” in the management of emergent conditions — I liked this book a lot because of the focus on high risk diagnoses or chief complaints in the error-prone, high decision density environment of the ED. While many of the topics are things that will be familiar to most clinicians, it never hurts to be reminded of an approach to troubleshooting post-intubation hypotension, or of the risk for abdominal compartment syndrome (though not typically an ED diagnosis) alongside instructions for how to measure abdominal compartment pressure. There are sections on things like cardiology, e.g. “Know the Mimics of Ventricular Tachycardia” and also critical care, with a great chapter on “How to Care for the ICU Boarder in Your ED” by none other than Josh Farkas who writes the PulmCrit blog I like so much. There are sections on upcommon presentations and pitfalls therein, such as “Normal Diagnostic Studies Do Not Rule Out Shunt Malfunction” and more medico-legal focused (clinical medicine is the overarching focus of the book, but I found this helpful) and clinical practice ares such as crowding, consultant communication / documentation and how to handle a deposition request. All in all, very readable, brief chapters that you could very easily read one of every day and learn something new, and well-written by authors respected in their fields. A bargain, and comes with an eBook for free — maybe useful for picking some above mentioned teaching points. 🙂

2.) Emergency Department Resuscitation Of The Critically Ill, 2nd Ed.

This book just came out, and I won’t pretend to have read through all of it yet, but what I have read is good enough to merit a positive review. This is also the second edition of a great book, featuring revised and rewritten chapters from authors such as Michael Winters, Peter DeBlieux, Evie Marcolini, Scott Weingert, and other EM-CC heavyweights. It focuses on best practices in the initial management of several varieties of critically ill patients (mostly on adults, but does have chapters on neonatal and pediatric resuscitation) including specific chapters on less-common but important areas such as Pulmonary Hypertension, Morbidly Obese patients, Anaphylaxis (going beyond the usual steps), various toxicology scenarios, and updates on the management of cardiac arrest and the post-cardiac arrest syndrome — something we often forget about after ROSC, unfortunately. Each chapter is around 10-12 pages, so a bit more expansive than the above-mentioned book without being too much like a typical CCM textbook. The chapters are well-referenced, and up to date in their recommendations. There are brief discussions about mechanical circulatory support (including one by Zack Shinar on ECMO and John Greenwood) including LVADs and IABPs, with a biomedical engineer contributing a great chapter on VAD malfunction and troubleshooting. This is a great book for a mid-level resident, or presumably practicing clinicians who have an interest in critical care in the ED and beyond. I feel like if you read this book and absorbed most of it, you would have caught yourself up on the last decade’s worth of developments in the world of critical care as it relates to the first several hours of patient’s hospitalizations — for anyone who isn’t throughly enmeshed in the world of FOAMed, many of the topics might be new, and for those who are, it’s a great review and dives a bit deeper than many of the podcasts and blogs out there. Totally worth checking out.

That’s all for now. More posts soon.