In Part 2 of this Episode Dr. Anna Jarvis, Canada’s “mother of pediatric emergency medicine” and  Dr. Stephen Freedman, one of Canada’s pre-eminent researchers in pediatric GI emergencies, discuss the assessment, work-up and treatment of pediatric gastroenteritis, with particular attention to gastro mimics, how best to assess hydration status, the nuances of the use of ondansetron and the prose and cons of various rehydration methods. A detailed discussion of the most common and lethal causes of bowel obstruction in pediatrics follows, inlcuding intussesception and midgut volvulus. Finally, the differential diagnosis and best management of the most common cause of pediatric abdominal pain, constipation, is reviewed.

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In Part 1 of this Episode, Dr. Anna Jarvis & Dr. Stephen Freedman discuss the nuances of the history, physical and work up of abdominal pain in children and key pearls on how to distinguish serious surgical causes from the very common diagnosis of gastroenteritis.  An in-depth discussion on the pearls of the history, physical exam, lab tests, imaging, analgesics and antibiotics in pediatric appendicitis follows. Read the full details of this episode »

In Part 2 of this Episode Dr. Fischer, Dr. Hannam, Dr. Chenkin & Dr. Hall discuss how eUS can help our decision-making in the pediatric patient with a limp, in the patient with necrotizing fasciitis, in the pregnant patient with vaginal bleeding and in the common and challenging elderly patient with undifferentiated abdominal pain. They cover eUS indications from urinary retention to appendicitis and debate the utility of these indications. This is followed by a debate on how best to educate ourselves and the EM community in eUS and how best to designs quality assurance programs so that eUS becomes an accepted tool across the entire medical community.

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In this first installment of this Episode, our panel of Emergency Ultrasound (eUS) gurus, Dr. Greg Hall, Dr. Jordan Chenkin, Dr. Paul Hannam & Dr. Jason Fischer, review the basic criteria for commonly used, practical Emergency Ultrasound (eUS) indications at the bedside and then dive into heated debate about specific pearls and pitfalls in eUS assessment of the patient with undifferentiated shortness of breath, undifferentiated shock, cardiac arrest and swollen leg. They discuss how best to interpret the massive body of literature for eUS and when we can hang our hats on our eUS findings.

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February 19th-22nd, 2012. This will be the 25th anniversary of one of the best EM conferences in Canada, put on by The University of Toronto, with some of the best skiing in the world! This year, EM Cases guest experts Eric Letovsky, Joel Yaphe, David Carr, Shirley Lee, Paul Hannam, Anna Jarvis, Anil Chopra & Dave Mackinnon, as well as our EM Cases host Anton Helman will all be there giving talks. Go to www.sites.cepdtoronto.ca/whistler for more information.

Dr. Walter Himmel & Dr. Dan Selchen update us on the recent literature regarding the ABCD2 Score to predict Stroke after TIA, as well as the current thinking around the best carotid imaging protocols for patients who have had a TIA. They then review the important findings of the key thrombolysis in stroke trials and how we should incorporate these findings into our daily practice. Dr. Selchen reviews the key CT findings we should be looking for in stroke patients and Dr. Himmel takes us through how to manage the dreaded complication of ICH after thrombolysis.

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