Omphalitis – Is that a normal umbilical stump or something serious? Certainly one of the most challenging (and either stimulating or completely terrifying) aspects of emergency medicine is how the seemingly innocuous can belie the sinister and devastating. For example,…
Subtle Signs of Pediatric Heart Failure For anyone who spends time in the Adult ED, signs and symptoms of heart failure become rather conspicuous. The increased work of breathing, the JVD, the significant lower extremity edema are noted prior to…
Pediatric Lymphadenopathy As has been highlighted in prior Morsels, our job in the Ped ED is to use our expert skills to pick out the needles of significant disease from amongst the large haystack of benign conditions. Lymphadenopathy occurring in…
The modern era of vaccinations (Prevnar and HiB) have drastically reduced the risk of serious bacterial infections in our young febrile patients. But, unfortunately, Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) are not affected by the modern vaccines and, therefore must still be…
Fontan Complications As more and more children are having successful surgical procedures to compensate for congenital heart disease, the likelihood that one of these post-operative heart patients will present to your ED increases. It is necessary for us to stay…
Acute Mastoiditis – Conservative Management 2 Morsels ago (Yes you can mark the passage of time in “Morsels”) [HSP and Testicular Pain] we addressed some common themes of the Ped EM Morsels. This week will highlight one of these themes…
Hypercalcemia in the Pediatric Patient in your ED. I would confidently announce that we, generally, order less reflexive blood work in the pediatric ED. I would like to think that this is because we have consciously and carefully considered the…