Items tagged “critical care”

21 results found
Article

Acute respiratory distress syndrome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a form of acute lung injury and occurs as a result of a severe pulmonary injury that causes alveolar damage heterogeneously throughout the lung. It can either result from a direct pulmonary source or as a response to systemic injury. This is a disti...
Article

Pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary embolism (PE) refers to partial or complete embolic occlusion of one or more pulmonary arteries, most commonly due to thrombus. PE is apparent as a ventilated perfusion defect on V/Q scan 35. Non-thrombotic pulmonary emboli sources include 30:  gas embolism, e.g. air embolism, carbon...
Article

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a type of cardiomyopathy defined by left ventricular hypertrophy which cannot otherwise be explained by another cardiac or systemic disease. It is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in infants, teenagers, and young adults. Terminology Although hypert...
Article

Acute acalculous cholecystitis

Acute acalculous cholecystitis refers to the development of cholecystitis in the gallbladder either without gallstones or with gallstones where they are not the contributory factor. It is thought to occur most often due to biliary stasis and/or gallbladder ischemia. Epidemiology Acute acalculo...
Article

Hemoptysis

Hemoptysis (plural: hemoptyses) refers to coughing up of blood. Generally, it appears bright red in color as opposed to blood from the gastrointestinal tract which appears dark red. It is considered an alarming sign of a serious underlying etiology. Terminology A variety of clinical classifica...
Article

Nitrous oxide toxicity

Nitrous oxide (N2O) toxicity has serious medical sequelae affecting both the CNS and the bone marrow. Neurological effects include encephalopathy, myelopathy, and neuropathy. This results from demyelination and gliosis due to a functional deficiency of vitamin B12 1. Bone marrow toxicity may lea...
Article

Rhabdomyolysis

Rhabdomyolysis describes the breakdown of striated muscles with the release of intracellular contents and represents a severe muscle injury. MRI is the imaging modality of choice. Rhabdomyolysis is potentially life-threatening although recovery is excellent with early treatment. Clinical presen...
Article

Midline shift

Midline shift is one of the most important indicators of increased intracranial pressure due to mass effect. Pathology Any intra-axial or extra-axial lesion (tumor, hemorrhage, abscess, etc.) has the potential to exert mass effect on the brain parenchyma and cause lateral shift of the midline ...
Article

Pneumothorax (ultrasound)

Pneumothorax is a serious potential consequence of blunt thoracic trauma and, if misdiagnosed, it may quickly become life-threatening. For a discussion on epidemiology, clinical presentation, pathology, and treatment and prognosis please see the main pneumothorax article.  Radiographic feature...
Article

Sonographic approach to dyspnea (mnemonic)

This mnemonic will help with the sonographic approach to the critically ill patient with dyspnea: CHEST Mnemonic C: collapsed lung (pneumothorax)  absence of anterior lung sliding, lung pulse, B-lines, or z-lines these artifacts arise from the pleural interface; their presence would rule ou...
Article

Bedside lung ultrasound in emergency (approach)

Bedside lung ultrasound in emergency (BLUE) is a basic point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) examination performed for undifferentiated respiratory failure at the bedside, immediately after the physical examination, and before echocardiography. The protocol is simple and dichotomous, and takes fewer...
Article

Manganese

Manganese (chemical symbol Mn) is one of the essential trace elements. It has an important biological role in the synthetic pathway for mucopolysaccharides, and it also is a cofactor for several enzymes. Chemistry Basic chemistry Manganese has the atomic number 25 with an atomic weight of 54....
Article

Abdominal compartment syndrome

Abdominal compartment syndrome is a disease defined by the presence of new end-organ dysfunction secondary to elevated intra-abdominal pressure. Radiological diagnosis is difficult and usually suggested when a collection of imaging findings are present in the appropriate clinical setting or if t...
Article

Subglottic stenosis

Subglottic stenosis is a condition characterized by narrowing of the subglottic airway (region below the vocal cords). It can be congenital or acquired 1. Epidemiology Subglottic stenosis is the third most common congenital airway abnormality. The incidence of subglottic stenosis has decreased...
Article

Stroke volume

The stroke volume (SV) is referred to as the volume of blood ejected into the aorta or main pulmonary artery during each cardiac cycle. The stroke volume index (SVI) is the stroke volume corrected for the body surface area (BSA). Usage The stroke volume is another integral parameter used for t...
Article

Shock

Shock is a pathologic state in which cellular injury results from an inadequate degree of effective tissue perfusion 5. It is commonly subcategorized by hemodynamic parameters into hypovolemic, distributive, cardiogenic, and extracardiac obstructive shock 1. Common causes include hemorrhage, car...
Article

Supraclavicular brachial plexus block (ultrasound)

A supraclavicular brachial plexus block is indicated for establishing sensory and motor blockade of the upper extremity, including the humerus, elbow, forearm, wrist and hand.  Indications necessity to provide analgesia of the upper extremity for: abscess incision and drainage elbow dislocat...
Article

Esophageal balloon tamponade device

An esophageal balloon tamponade device is a form of balloon catheter designed to exert direct pressure on bleeding gastro-esophageal varices in order to obtain hemostasis. It is considered a temporizing measure in hemodynamically unstable patients in whom endoscopic (or angiographic) interventio...
Article

Acute exogenous lipoid pneumonia

Acute exogenous lipoid pneumonia is an uncommon form of exogenous lipoid pneumonia and is typically caused by the aerosolization and aspiration of a highly viscous hydrocarbon, such as vegetable oil, mineral oil or petroleum jelly 5. The more common pulmonary toxicity exerted by hydrocarbons is ...
Case

Swan-Ganz catheter

  Diagnosis certain
Reabal Najjar
Published 30 Nov 2022
97% complete
X-ray

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