Health Canada Eyes Opioid Restrictions for Popular Painkiller

Health Canada Eyes Opioid Restrictions for Popular Painkiller

Health Canada has launched a review of the increasingly popular pharmaceutical drug tramadol – a move that could prompt the department to reverse its controversial, decade-old decision not to classify the medication as... read more

Can Early Rehabilitation on the General Ward After an ICU Stay Reduce Hospital Length of Stay in Survivors of Critical Illness?

Can Early Rehabilitation on the General Ward After an ICU Stay Reduce Hospital Length of Stay in Survivors of Critical Illness?

An early rehabilitation program in survivors of critical illness led to an earlier discharge from the hospital, improved functional recovery, and was also cost-effective and safe. In the per-protocol analysis, length of... read more

Examining When to Provide Pain Management for Patients

Examining When to Provide Pain Management for Patients

Sometimes a lack of pain medication is the patient's best form of treatment. Eradicating pain has been a focus of medicine throughout history, from the early use of cocaine to the current use of fentanyl. As a prehospital... read more

Worldwide Survey of the ABCDEF Bundle in the ICU

Worldwide Survey of the ABCDEF Bundle in the ICU

The current implementation of the ABCDEF bundle varies across individual components and regions. We identified specific targets for quality improvement and adoption of the ABCDEF bundle. Our data reflect a significant but... read more

Prescribed Morphine Milligram Equivalents of Opioids by County

Prescribed Morphine Milligram Equivalents of Opioids by County

Despite reductions in opioid prescribing in some parts of the USA, the amount of opioids prescribed remains high relative to 1999 levels and varies substantially at the county-level. Given associations between opioid prescribing,... read more

Drug might alleviate post-surgical delirium and confusion

Drug might alleviate post-surgical delirium and confusion

To blunt postoperative pain and reduce the need for opioid drugs following surgery, anesthesiologists often give patients low doses of the drug ketamine during operations. Recent research even suggests that the drug might... read more

EM-Critical Care: Aortic Dissection

EM-Critical Care: Aortic Dissection

Thoracic Aortic Dissection A difficult to diagnose, uncommon, and potentially fatal condition: Emergency Medicine at its finest!   Let’s talk about a patient we think see every day in the ED. A man comes in complaining... read more

Drug-Free Musculoskeletal Pain Therapy Given Clearance by FDA

Drug-Free Musculoskeletal Pain Therapy Given Clearance by FDA

BioElectronics Corp. has received over-the-counter use market clearance from the FDA for ActiPatch for the adjunctive treatment of musculoskeletal pain related to plantar fasciitis of the heel and osteoarthritis of the knee. BioElectronics... read more

A Letter to a Young Emergency Doctor

A Letter to a Young Emergency Doctor

When I was starting out, I was told there were three types of doctors doing emergency medicine: missionaries, adrenaline junkies, and fools. I was all three. Now that I’m burning out at the other end of my career, I have... read more

Placebo Plus Usual Treatment Achieves Clinically Significant Back Pain Relief

Placebo Plus Usual Treatment Achieves Clinically Significant Back Pain Relief

A placebo of a pill added to treatment as usual for chronic low back pain resulted in clinically significant improvements in patients who were informed about the placebo beforehand, according to a new study from Portugal. All... read more

The Sick Bowel Obstruction Patient

The Sick Bowel Obstruction Patient

A 68-year-old female presents to the ED with abdominal pain, bloating, and nausea which she states began this morning upon wakening about 3 hours prior to arrival. She appears moderately uncomfortable and pale. She is urgently... read more

Pain Assessment in INTensive care (PAINT)

Pain Assessment in INTensive care (PAINT)

Pain is a common and distressing symptom experienced by intensive care patients. Assessing pain in this environment is challenging, and published guidelines have been inconsistently implemented. The Pain Assessment in INTensive... read more

Clinical Massage, Guided Imagery Show Promise as Tools to Relieve Pain, Anxiety and Insomnia for Hospitalized Patients

Clinical Massage, Guided Imagery Show Promise as Tools to Relieve Pain, Anxiety and Insomnia for Hospitalized Patients

Clinical massage and guided imagery may have a substantial, positive impact on patients' comfort at a very low cost, according to a study published in Critical Care Nurse. Researchers with Beaumont Health System in Royal... read more

Pain Sensitivity Plays a Role in Unrecognized Myocardial Infarction

Pain Sensitivity Plays a Role in Unrecognized Myocardial Infarction

People who experience unrecognized or silent myocardial infarction may have reduced pain sensitivity compared with those whose Myocardial Infarction is noticed, according to the results of a study recently published online... read more

Tips Offered for Deep Propofol Sedation And Aspiration in Non-OR Settings

Tips Offered for Deep Propofol Sedation And Aspiration in Non-OR Settings

With exponential growth in the number of procedures being done under anesthesia, especially in the gastrointestinal suite, providers are wondering about the best way to provide safe, efficient and affordable care but also... read more

Non-addictive Painkiller Shows Promise in Animal Trials

Non-addictive Painkiller Shows Promise in Animal Trials

Preliminary research in monkeys suggests that a new medication might be able to provide pain relief similar to opioid drugs such as OxyContin, but without the same potential for addiction or serious side effects.... read more