Items tagged “emergencymedicine”

Achilles tendon tears are the most common ankle tendon injuries, and are most commonly seen secondary to sports-related injury, especially squash and basketball. Epidemiology There is strong male over-representation presumably as a result of the predominantly sport related etiology. Patients a...

The differential for air space opacities is extensive, and needs to be interpreted in context of chronicity (previous imaging) and clinical context. It is therefore useful to divide airspace opacities as follows: acute airspace opacities with lymph node enlargement acute airspace opacities: un...

Aortic dissection is the most common form of the acute aortic syndromes and a type of arterial dissection. It occurs when blood enters the medial layer of the aortic wall through a tear or penetrating ulcer in the intima and tracks along the media, forming a second blood-filled channel within th...

Aortic intramural hematoma (IMH) is an atypical form of aortic dissection due to hemorrhage into the wall from the vasa vasorum without an intimal tear. It is part of the acute aortic syndrome spectrum. Epidemiology Typically aortic intramural hematomas are seen in older hypertensive patients....

Avascular necrosis (AVN), or more correctly osteonecrosis, is a generic term referring to the ischemic death of the constituents of bone. AVN has a wide variety of causes and can affect nearly any bone in the body. Most sites of involvement have an eponym associated with avascular necrosis of th...

Boxer fractures are minimally comminuted, transverse fractures of the 5th metacarpal and are the most common type of metacarpal fracture. They typically occur (as the name suggests) when punching and are a common sight in all emergency departments on Friday nights. They should not be confused w...

Cecal volvulus describes torsion of the cecum around its mesentery which often results in obstruction. If unrecognised, it can result in bowel perforation and fecal peritonitis. Epidemiology Cecal volvulus accounts for ~10% of all intestinal volvuluses, and generally occur in somewhat younger ...

Caroticocavernous fistulas (CCF) represent abnormal communication between the carotid circulation and the cavernous sinus. They can be classified as direct or indirect which are separate conditions with different etiologies.   Epidemiology Direct CCFs are often secondary to trauma, and as such...

Chronic unilateral airspace opacification is a subset of the differential diagnoses for airspace opacification. An exhaustive list of all possible causes of chronic unilateral airspace opacities is long, but a useful framework is as follows: neoplastic post obstructive lymphoma lymphocytic ...

Demyelination is incorrectly often equated to multiple sclerosis, whereas in reality it is a generic pathological term simply describing, as the word suggests, the loss of normal myelin around axons in the central nervous system. This should be distinguished from dysmyelination where the formati...

Dural venous sinus thrombosis is a subset of cerebral venous thrombosis, often coexisting with cortical or deep vein thrombosis, and presenting in similar fashions, depending mainly on which sinus is involved. As such, please refer to the cerebral venous thrombosis article for a general discuss...

Ectopia lentis refers to subluxation or dislocation of the lens of the eye secondary to dysfunction or disruption of zonular fibers.  Pathology Etiology trauma systemic and syndromic disorders Marfan syndrome typically upwards and out most common spontaneous cause 2 homocystinuria -  typ...

Epiploic appendagitis is a rare self-limiting inflammatory/ischemic process involving an appendix epiploica of the colon and may either be primary or secondary to adjacent pathology. This article pertains to primary (spontaneous) epiploic appendagitis. The term along with omental infarction is g...

False aneurysms, also known as a pseudoaneurysm, is when there is a breach in the vessel wall such that blood leaks through the wall but is contained by the adventitia or surrounding perivascular soft tissue. A direct communication of blood flow exists between the vessel lumen and the aneurysm l...

Fibrinous pericarditis results from fine granular roughening of the pericardium. Clinical presentation Pericardial friction rub may be heard. Pathology Causes viral acute idiopathic tuberculosis pyogenic acute rheumatic fever myocardial infarction: Dressler syndrome chronic renal fail...

Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is a relatively common condition resulting from insufficient production of surfactant that occurs in preterm neonates.  On imaging, the condition generally presents as bilateral and relatively symmetric diffuse ground glass lungs with low volumes and a bell-s...

Intestinal ischemia refers to vascular compromise of the bowel which in the acute setting has a very high mortality if not treated expediently. Diagnosis is often straightforward, provided appropriate imaging is obtained and sometimes subtle findings sought out. The disease can be arbitrarily cl...

Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) is a collective term encompassing many different conditions characterized by the extravascular accumulation of blood within different intracranial spaces. A simple categorization is based on location: intra-axial hemorrhage intracerebral hemorrhage basal ganglia ...

Midgut volvulus is a complication of malrotated bowel. It may result in proximal bowel obstruction with resultant ischemia if prompt treatment is not instigated. Epidemiology A midgut volvulus of malrotated bowel can potentially occur at any age but in approximately 75% of cases occur within a...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a relatively common acquired chronic relapsing demyelinating disease involving the central nervous system, and is the second most common cause of neurological impairment in young adults, after trauma 19. Characteristically, and by definition, multiple sclerosis is diss...