Emergency Medicine Archives - searchfortruth.info

Opioid Overdose Prevention for Law Enforcement and First Responders

February 21, 2019October 10, 2017 by admin

What is naloxone?
Naloxone is a medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose. It is an opioid antagonist meaning that it binds to opioid receptors and can reverse and block the effects of other opioids. It can very quickly restore normal respiration to a person whose breathing has slowed or stopped as a result of overdosing with heroin or prescription opioid pain medications.

How is naloxone given?
There are three FDA-approved formulations of naloxone:

Injectable (professional training required)
Generic brands of injectable naloxone vials are offered by a variety of companies that are listed in the FDA Orange Book under "naloxone" (look for "injectable").

Note: There has been widespread use of improvised emergency kits that combine an injectable formulation of naloxone with an atomizer that can deliver naloxone intranasally. Use of this product requires the user to be trained on proper assembly a...

Hyperkalemia in Emergency Medicine

January 22, 2019October 10, 2017 by admin

Practice Essentials

Hyperkalemia can be difficult to diagnose clinically because symptoms may be vague or absent. The fact, however, that hyperkalemia can lead to sudden death from cardiac arrhythmias requires that physicians be quick to consider hyperkalemia in patients who are at risk for it. See the electrocardiogram below.

Widened QRS complexes in hyperkalemia. See also Can't-Miss ECG Findings, Life-Threatening Conditions: Slideshow, a Critical Images slideshow, to help recognize the conditions shown in various tracings.

Signs and symptoms

Patients with hyperkalemia may be asymptomatic, or they may report the following symptoms (cardiac and neurologic symptoms predominate):

• Generalized fatigue
• Weakness
• Paresthesias
• Paralysis
• Palpitations