Emergency Medicine: Difference between revisions

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[[image:rajthin.jpg|right|thumb|300px|]]
[[image:burntman.jpg|right|thumb|300px|This man may be suffering from [[burns]].]]
Emergency medicine is the kind of stuff you will see in A&E. The key issues to know here are [[medical emergencies]], and [[#Physical Injury|trauma]]. Everything else is probably just common sense.
Emergency Medicine is a very wide field, that involves dealing with a whole host of complaints.
 
There are four main categories of patients you will see:
*[[Medical emergencies]]
*General medical or surgical problems
*[[Minor injuries]]  
*People with nothing wrong with them


===Medical Emergencies===
===Medical Emergencies===
[[image:emergency.gif|left]]'''There is a whole page on [[medical emergencies]] that you should definitely know about.'''
[[image:emergency.gif|left]]'''There is a whole page on [[medical emergencies]] that you should definitely know about.'''


Common ones in A&E are [[chest pain]] is important. So is [[ECG]]
Common ones in A&E are [[heart attacks]], [[COPD exacerbation]], [[asthma attack]], [[DKA]] and [[road traffic accidents]].
 
They are generally stablised in the Resus area in an emergency department, where they will get, in fairly quick succession, a [[CXR]], [[ECG]], full barrage of [[blood tests]], [[ABG]] and, most likely, [[oxygen]].


===Physical Injury===
===Physical Injury===
[[image:burntman.jpg|left|200px]]It's quite important to learn about physical injury, as it is a common appearance in A & E.  
It's quite important to learn about physical injury, as it is a common appearance in A & E.  


It is split into four areas: [[fractures]], [[lacerations]], [[burns]] and [[major injuries]]. In the picture on the left, Raj has been bludgeoned in the groin, [[lacerated]] repeatedly with a small, blunt knife, and then [[burnt]] in a big fire, in a coming-of-age ceremony as part of his religion, "Atheism".
It is split into four areas: [[fractures]], [[lacerations]], [[burns]] and [[major injuries]].


===Casualty===
===Casualty===

Latest revision as of 08:48, 12 April 2012

This man may be suffering from burns.

Emergency Medicine is a very wide field, that involves dealing with a whole host of complaints.

There are four main categories of patients you will see:

Medical Emergencies

Emergency.gif

There is a whole page on medical emergencies that you should definitely know about.

Common ones in A&E are heart attacks, COPD exacerbation, asthma attack, DKA and road traffic accidents.

They are generally stablised in the Resus area in an emergency department, where they will get, in fairly quick succession, a CXR, ECG, full barrage of blood tests, ABG and, most likely, oxygen.

Physical Injury

It's quite important to learn about physical injury, as it is a common appearance in A & E.

It is split into four areas: fractures, lacerations, burns and major injuries.

Casualty

If you watch Casualty, you will have a very realistic view of how emergency medicine is conducted in real hospitals. Realistic, apart from the fact that all the nurses and doctors do not actually have affairs with each other, with hospital administrators and with patients on a daily basis, managing to fit that in between their casual sex in elevators, near constant drug abuse, and the fact that they even have the energy after 12 hour shifts to go out drinking all night and arrive back at work still drunk the next day.

And no one is as nice as Charlie in real life.