Department Blog

Stephen Thom, MD, PhD, and his colleagues from the University of Split School of Medicine in Croatia, published the article titled “Exercise Before and After SCUBA Diving and the Role of Cellular Microparticles in Decompression Stress” in the January issue of Medical Hypotheses. Their observations contribute to the ongoing examination of the role of venous gas emboli in decompression sickness. Elucidation of the effect of pre-dive practices such as exercise, ingestion of antioxidants, and hydration on an individual’s response to dive stresses could lead to applications in the management of diseases that involve endothelial dysfunction and microparticle production.

Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, and Bryan D. Hayes, PharmD, along with Gordon S. Smith, MBChB, MPH, from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, and Wendy Klein-Schwartz, PharmD, MPH, from the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science in the School of Pharmacy, and their Egyptian colleagues, are the authors of an article in the January issue of Clinical Toxicology. Its title is “Epidemiology of Acute Poisoning in Children Presenting to the Poisoning Treatment Center at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, 2009-2013.” The 38,470 children treated at the center during the study period accounted for 44% of total patients seen. Poisoning in preschool children was mainly unintentional and commonly caused by nonpharmaceutical agents, whereas most poisonings among adolescents were intentional. Pesticides, most commonly organophosphorus compounds and carbamates, were the agents that most often led to morbidity and mortality.

Danya Khoujah, MBBS, and Amal Mattu, MD, contributed the chapter on ischemic heart disease to the sixth edition of Emergency Medicine Secrets, published this month by Elsevier.

Eight members of the emergency medicine faculty traveled to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, last week, as invited speakers at the 2016 Rocky Mountain Winter Conference. Amal Mattu, MD, presented the keynote address, "Secrets of Success in Emergency Medicine...From the Princess Bride," and a lecture, “PEA: A Miracle Pill for the Mostly Dead!” The other participating faculty members and the titles of their presentations are as follows: Brian Browne, MD, "Free-Standing Emergency Departments," George Willis, MD, “The Crashing Aortic Dissection: Do's and Don'ts,” Wendy Chang, MD, “Status Epilepticus: Mistakes You Don't Want to Make!,” Michael Winters, MD, “Running the Perfect Code” and “Cutting Edge Resuscitation...Beyond the Golden Tower,” Haney Mallemat, MD, “Critical Care Ultrasound: Beyond the FAST” and “More Than Morning Sickness: The Critically Ill Pregnant Patient,” Semhar Tewelde, MD, “Syncope Disasters,” and Michael Abraham, MD, "Dazed and Confused--How to Save Every Last Neuron!” The conference was sponsored by Denver Health Medical Center.

Seth Ball, MD, and Sarah Moreland, MD, both EM/PEDS residents, published an aritcle on apparent life-threatening events in newborns and infants in the February/March issue of EM Resident. The authors summarize the elusive differential diagnosis of this presentation and present strategies for ED workup. Most cases will be linked to gastroesophageal reflux, seizure, or respiratory infection, but almost half of patients leave the ED without a clear diagnosis.

Ben Lawner, DO, MS, EMT-P, co-led the workshop titled “Electronic Dance Music, Designer Drugs & Teen Deaths” at the annual meeting of the National Association of EMS Physicians, held last week in San Diego. His co-presenters were Kathleen FitzGibbon, MD, a 2015 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Medicine (now an EM resident at Christiana Care Health System), Matt Levy, DO, MSc, NREMTP, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins and a leader in that department's Division of Special Operations, and Kevin Seaman, MD, Executive Director of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems. The focus of the workshop was the current craze of teens ingesting designer drugs in an attempt to have psychedelic experiences at concerts. Some of those attempts have been fatal. The workshop leaders reviewed recent literature on the topic and discussed evidence-based practices for response and treatment.

Dr. Joe Martinez and Dr. Adam Geroff published a clinical image and patient vignette about Sister Mary Joseph’s nodule in the Visual Diagnosis column of the January issue of The Journal of Emergency Medicine. Sister Mary Joseph (Julia) Dempsey, a surgical assistant at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, at the turn of the 19th century, brought this ominous indication of abdominal cancer to the attention of Dr. William Mayo, who published a paper about it in 1928. The eponym was first used, posthumously for Sister Mary Joseph, by Dr. Hamilton Bailey, in a book chapter published in 1949.

The February issue of Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America, on the topic of respiratory emergencies, contains articles written by two EM faculty members. Michael Winters, MD, with co-author Michael Allison, MD (a 2015 graduate of our 6-year EM/IM/CCM residency and now a critcal care attending at St. Agnes Hospital), contributed the article titled “Noninvasive Ventilation for the Emergency Physician.” Haney Mallemat, MD, co-authored the article titled “Emergency Department Treatment of the Mechanically Ventilated Patient.” Amal Mattu, MD, Consulting Editor for the Clinics series, provided the foreword for this issue.

Drs. Jon Mark Hirshon and Doug Floccare have updated their Cochrane review, “Helicopter Emergency Medical Services for Adults with Major Trauma.” Their new work was published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews on December 15, 2015, with co-authors Drs. Samuel Galvagno, Robert Sikorski, and Christopher Stephens from the Department of Anesthesiology; Ms. Deirdre Beecher, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Cochrane Injuries Group; and Dr. Stephen Thomas, Hamad General Hospital & Weill Cornell Medical College, Doha, Qatar.

Ashley Strobel, MD, Vikramjit Gill, MD, and Michael Witting, MD, MS, collaborated with Getachew Teshome, MD, MPH, from the Department of Pediatrics, on the study that led to their article published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine: “Emergency Diagnostic Testing for Pediatric Nonfebrile Seizures” (33:1261-1264, 2015).