Category: EMR
- Techniques For Opening An Airway On An Unconscious Patient ()
Patients who are not alert and not talking to you may have an obstructed airway. When your patient is alert and speaking to you, checking the airway is unnecessary (it is impossible to speak through an obstructed airway). When the patient is not alert (and definitely not speaking), you have to assess the airway to […]
- Airway Assessment ()
When the patient is alert and talking to you, the airway is clear. When the patient is not alert and is not speaking to you, the airway must be assessed In a patient who is unresponsive or not alert, the cause of the altered mental status could be an airway obstruction of some sort, so […]
- Anatomy of The Lower Airway ()
The lower respiratory tract or lower airway consists of the trachea, bronchi (primary, secondary and tertiary), bronchioles (including terminal and respiratory), and lungs (including alveoli). It also sometimes includes the larynx. The lower respiratory tract is also called the respiratory tree or tracheobronchial tree, to describe the branching structure of airways supplying air to the […]
- Anatomy of Upper Airway ()
The pharynx is the mucous membrane-lined portion of the airway between the base of the skull and the esophagus and is subdivided as follows: Nasopharynx, also known as the rhino-pharynx, post-nasal space, is the muscular tube from the nares, including the posterior nasal cavity, divided from the oropharynx by the palate and lining the skull base […]
- Auto Injection Made Easy….And Fun ()
An autoinjector (or auto-injector) is a medical device designed to deliver a dose of a particular drug. The injectors were initially designed to overcome the hesitation associated with self-administration of the needle-based drug delivery device. Most autoinjectors are one-use, disposable, spring-loaded syringes. By design, autoinjectors are easy to use and are intended for self-administration by […]
- EMS Role In Public Health ()
In 1915 when Yale added the Department of Public Health to its medical school, such programs were rare. The University of Pennsylvania had one. Harvard and MIT had a joint School for Health Officers. Johns Hopkins was a year away from starting its School of Hygiene and Public Health. As suggested by these names, the […]
- Getting Old Sucks ()
All is not lost on the middle aged person (age 41 – 60). Middle aged people tend to be more conservative in their approaches to life, often approaching life’s problems as challenges as opposed to threats. Middle aged people sometimes struggle with the passage of their own children into adulthood. This lack of familial interaction […]
- How Vital Signs Vary With Age ()
As one can see from the chart below, normal vital signs vary with age. As the newborn (birth to 30 days) ages, respirations and pulse progressively get slower while systolic blood pressure becomes higher. Physiologically, these changes are associated with body surface area to weight. This ratio is seen in nature where smaller animals tend […]
- Respiratory Compromise ()
A patient who is experiencing respiratory distress can develop respiratory compromise. It is the goal of the EMS crew to delay or reverse respiratory compromise. Failure reverse respiratory compromise will result in respiratory failure. Exactly when the patient transitions to respiratory compromise from respiratory distress is not entirely defined, however some changes in the function […]
- How People Die: Respiratory Failure ()
When a patient’s respiratory system becomes compromised, the patient is very close to death. If the patient doesn’t improve, the next step is death. Any condition or injury that affects breathing can cause respiratory failure. The condition or injury may affect the airway or lungs. Or it may affect the muscles, nerves, and bones that […]