Fractures of the wrist or forearm are one of the most common diagnoses we make in the emergency department. The ability to put on a good plaster or brace is an essential skill. Sometimes what we put on resembles something carved out of a log of wood, certainly mine did. However my techniques has improved…

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What’s this? A device that seeks and finds the trachea and intubates the patient?……enter the GuideIN tube. Reported this week in ‘Gizmag’ from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The media is a little abuzz with this so lets look at it. Images from ‘Gismag’. The mechanism by which it works involves an infrared light source…

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For years we have been using cricoid pressure in the emergency airway, so as to minimise regurgitation when the neuromuscular blocker is given and the gastro-oesophageal sphincter relaxes. The theory is that we use the trachea to compress the posterior lying oesophagus.We need to stop. The only real indication for cricoid pressure is when there…

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I remember a time before the ultrasound when all the central lines I would do (except for coagulopathic patients) were subclavian lines. I had a real concern about the rate of pneumothoraces using the internal jugular approach. Now, they are all I will do. Thanks to the ultrasound. You don’t have to be an ultrasound…

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