TamingtheSRU UC Department of Emergency Medicine

Sepsis remains an increasingly common emergency department condition that is tied to higher morbidity and mortality across the United States as well  as the rest of the world. Sepsis as a disease process has been difficult to both clearly define and quickly recognize. Many metrics for recognition and management of sepsis are dependent upon various scoring systems, including SIRS, SOFA, qSOFA, and MEWS, none of which were designed for the acute detection of sepsis within the emergency department. This journal club recap will look at an article by Knack et al looking at physician gestalt vs scoring systems for the detection of sepsis.

In patients with cirrhosis and ongoing bleeding, it can be challenging to determine whether or not patients are hyper or hypocoagulable. Traditional markers of coagulation status like INR can be difficult to interpret in patients with abnormal synthetic function and potentially increase consumption of coagulation factors. Can TEG (thromboelastography) be a helpful too in these situations? In this journal club recap, Dr. Grisoli recaps a recent article by Rout et al that addresses this issue.

In this journal club recap, Dr Sarah Moulds recaps a recent meta-analysis of papers looking at the therapeutic effect of TXA in patients with severe trauma. Are their higher rates of thromboembolic complications? Is mortality improved? This article by Fouche et al attempts to answer these questions.

Out of hospital cardiac arrest (OOHCA) represents a great cause of morbidity and mortality. Approximately 350,000 cardiac arrests occur in North America annually and 20% can be attributed to Ventricular tachydysrhythmias (i.e. ventricular tachycardia [v fib] and ventricular tachycardia [v tach]without a pulse). In this journal club recap, Dr Kelly Tillotson recaps an article comparing different ways of defibrillation and their effect on outcomes in OOHCA

In this most recent Journal Club recap podcast, Dr. Cole Davis covers a paper investigating the use of sterile vs clean gloves for laceration repair in the ED.

In this journal club breakdown, we analyze an article examining the relationship between invasive arterial line blood pressure measurements and non-invasive cuff measurements.