Drug ingestion both accidental and intentional accounts for a significant proportion of attendances at UK Emergency Departments and 999 calls.
In 2016 there were >2,500 registered deaths in England and Wales related to drug misuse, which had increased by nearly 60% in a decade.
So without a doubt we are all going to come across critically unwell patients with drug ingestions. But inappropriate drug use is not confined to illicit substances, with many prescription drugs being misused to ill effect and also overdosed in an attempt to end patients lives.
In this podcast we’re going to run through the assessment of patients presenting with a possible drug ingestion, cover the potential toxidromes you may encounter and talk about the management of these presentations. Specifically we take a look at serotonin syndrome, sedative toxidrome and both cholinergic and anti-cholinergic syndrome.
In next months Roadside to Resus we'll take a look at specific medications of overdose; paracetamol, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers and the intricacies of their management along with other key parts of critical care including the management of cardiac arrest due to toxicity.
Make sure to take a look at the references and resources below.
Enjoy!
Simon, Rob & James
Welcome back!!
So we've had a small summer hiatus and are now back with another Papers of The Month and a jam packed line up of episodes for the rest of the year!
We start off this month with a paper which looks to evaluate if there is any benefit on mortality with the use of checklists for endotracheal intubation.
Next up we take a look at the factors in cardiac arrest that are most important with regards to prognostication; what should your attention and handover be most focussed upon?
Finally we take a look at a paper suggesting that blood gases following ROSC can help us prognosticate for our patient and how this might this affect our practice.
Finally keep an eye out for our CPD portal and app which is in the final stages of testing and will be out very shortly!! We'll be keeping you up to date on twitter @TheResusRoom with its launch
All references can be found on our webpage at TheResusRoom.co.uk
Enjoy!
Simon & Rob