Airway Tip O' The Day

A colleague on flight had a horrendous trip the other day to a blast site. One victim was talking, had normal vital signs, but was hoarse and covered in black soot from the neck up due to the blast.

An indication for a tube if ever there was one; it had only been sixty minutes or so from the time of the blast and already she was unable to pass a tube a full size smaller than needed, and saved his life with a rescue device instead (a King LT). Which leads to the airway tip o' the day.

A bougie is a long, flexible plastic thingee used to find the trachea by feel and by the bend at its end, over which you can then pass a tube. Usually I think of it as a means to improve an airway with a bad view. She had a great view; he was just too swollen.

The tip is to use a bougie even with a great view in the setting of airway edema; if you can't pass a tube over the bougie, leave it in place, go one size down, continuing until you pass something.

Of course, this being the great frozen north, it was seven degrees where she was trying to intubate without the windchill, so the bougie probably would've snapped. The O2 tubing had already frozen. Sweet. Can't wait to start flying.

GCS of Seven

Most kids aren't that sick in the ED. Some are downright well. After working there for a while, you're sicker than most of them because they've given you GI junk and URI junk and maybe some rash junk, too.

When they ARE sick, good God, it's scary. We had an ambulance call, not a trauma call, come in the other day, of a 3 year old, head versus TV, and 'altered'.

To prepare in my head, though I would never be the one to do it as an Intern, I reviewed RSI doses--0.2 mg/kg etomidate, 2 mg/kg succinylcholine, estimate for a 3 year old about 15 Kg, so 3 mg and 30 mg.

He came in moaning, not in a C-collar, his right arm flexed, eyes closed. GCS? 1 for eyes, 3 for pediatric moaning, 3 for flexion posture--seven. Needed a tube.

We took him into the trauma bay, and held C-spine precautions while I realized I didn't know how to work the C-collars we have at children's because I've never done it. Having never done a peds trauma resuscitation, I was sort of useless--I could hold the bag on and do the ATLS algorithm in my head, but so what?

IV in 2 minutes, intubated in 5, CT scanner in 10. Pretty good. The kids are so small and everyone is so intense, pediatric traumas are frenetic. Everyone is close together. The sphincter tone in the room is incredible.

His CT scan showed a skull fracture and air all over, with 2 mm of midline shift. Hopefully he'll do better.

That's Peds EM this month--95% BS snot and wheezing or their leg looks funny but doesn't hurt, and 5% holy crap.

I'm Sorry, Man

The picture here is from the first page of Beowulf--not the CGI version that was produced with Angelina Jolie but the oldest surviving piece of English literature. It's a testament to how important words are, and for how long we've struggled as people to get our meaning across.

Imagine, then, not being able to find your words. Imagine speaking in truncated sentences, stopping in the middle, fumbling. This is a finding called non-fluent aphasia. Sudden onset of speech difficulty is often listed as 'slurred speech' in stroke education, but that is actually dysarthria and comes from loss of control of the muscles of the mouth and tongue to some extent. Aphasia is a stroke that somehow involves the higher cortical functions of language, and patients literally cannot find the words they need.

A gentleman came in with this last week. It had first happened in Mexico, on vacation, and then resolved somewhat; it had returned four hours before arrival and it was his only presenting symptom. Histories like this make me sad. It was no doubt what he had. There was an upside--he had very few deficits. But imagine not being able to find words anymore.

Imagine being mute not from some physical ailment but from literally not being able to get to that word or phrase that is dying to come out. It happens to all of us (ironically, for me the other day when I was trying to remember the word 'dysarthria')--but this is different. He stopped in the middle of almost every sentence, and he made grammatical mistakes normally heard in an ESL class.

His main question? When can I go back to work? He worked in business, had meetings all day. Not soon, dude. Not soon.

Shaken or Stirred?

When James Bond says how he wants his martinis, both choices are refined, the choice is a test of internal character, of dashing charm. In the ED, though, it never seems to work out that way...

Part 1: 'Stirred'

A middle eastern fellow comes in complaining of 'twitching' and a funny feeling in his chest, and, sitting on the gurney, shakes his extremities violently and spasmodically, going red in the face. He still responds, asking, 'what is it, what is it' that makes him do this between episodes, and even throws up a couple times. He gets pads, monitors, a non-rebreather, and serum and urine tox.

History reveals that he's had 3 full-size Red Bulls that morning alone (it's about 10:30). He also says 'someone blew smoke in his face' and he didn't know what it was, right before he started jerking all the time. Riiight. U Tox comes back with...hmmm...cannabinoids. I go to tell him and have to excuse his father and older brother; his mother, covered head to toe in a hijab (they're Jordanian) doesn't speak English and just looks at me with a smile while I tell her son he's a pothead (which he denies, must have been that guy blowing smoke at him) and it doesn't mix with Red Bull. His father wants to know if he's doing drugs. I said, "I can't tell you, but as a father, you should parent him as you would based on your own impressions". The dood (thanks Nurse K) denied any pot use. Right.

Part 2: 'Shaken'

I'm walking down the hallway minding my own business when an uptight lady standing next to a gurney says, 'Are you an attending?' then before I answer, says 'I'm doctor so-and-so from the Children's hospital ICU, and I need to talk to you right now.' The Children's hospital is adjoining ours, and corridors connect us. She then gives me sign out about this guy who started having 'a seizure' in the cafeteria of Children's. Later the nurses said she was totally rude and I wish that I had told her something about EMTALA violations (since he was on Children's premesis) but I didn't. The guy is still shaking all over but looking at us.

'Sir, can you hear me?' He can. 'Can you stop?' He can. Sweet! Cured.

I start examining him briefly and tell him we're going to get a few tests--and he refuses blood draw. My staff comes in, and says--'Hi, Howard. We're not going to play these games today, OK? You give us blood and let us evaluate you, or you leave now'.

Howard starts shaking again, this time on his feet--miraculous how he can do that--then pretends to fall. Refuses blood draws. He gets put in a wheelchair, and says, 'I'm going right back to the cafeteria to have a seizure!' 'Go ahead', the attending says. He starts shaking in his chair again. 'Knock it off, Howard', says the tech, and he does. To myself, I'm thinking, did that ICU doc even look at this guy? Probably not. Way too old.

So the ED shaken or stirred question, not so glamorous. But way, way more fun.

How Much Does She Drink?

Sometimes, I'm a dodo and it's good that I'm supervised.

Sixty-ish African-American lady who came in seeing mean white bugs on the walls, and colored squares on her body that came and went, as well as a new tremor, shortness of breath, and minimal chest pain, BP 210/120, HR 130, SOB. She was diaphoretic, tremulous, anxious. She had been seen at another ED and diagnosed with anxiety.

I did a careful history and physical. She was seeing squares at the time. 'Are they friendly?' I asked. I can't help but mess with psychotic people. 'I'm not sure', she said. My differential included thyroid storm, encephalopathy 2/2 the hypertension. The attending asked, 'does she drink?'

Well, @&*%$#!, I didn't ask. Back to the room.

Ma'am, do you drink alcohol?

Oh, yes.

How much, would you say, on average?

Oh, four or five drinks a day.

When did you drink last?

Well, New Year's Eve; that was five days ago.

Peak for DTs. I'm an idiot. 2 mg ativan IV and dispo done. Sheesh. Thyroid storm.

FMOE: Toxicology Case Answers

Case 1. 21 year old genius shows up in the ED. His girlfriend is concerned because he seems weak, acts like he's drunk, and is unsteady on his feet as well as slow in his responses. She is holding a plastic bag with what smells like model glue in it. Afebrile, RR 23, HR 80, BP 120/68.

1. What chemical element was this genius probably exposed to, given the odor?

Toluene is desired by high-seekers for its rapid CNS absorption and quick high; the toxicity here is obtundation, which usually clears quickly. Chronic users kill brain cells and become demented. Hydrocarbon ingestions typically damage the lungs more, but toluene goes straight for the CNS.

2. What secondary disturbance is likely causing his symptoms, especially the weakness?

Toluene can simulate a renal tubular acidosis and lead to hypokalemia and hypophosphatemia.

Case 2. A 25 year old sportsman was golfing when he felt a prick in his finger with some scant bleeding after searching for his golf ball in long grass. He finished the round, and now has increasing pain and swelling in his hand. He is starting to feel a bit weak. Temp 99.5, BP 85/50; right hand is tender, swollen, and bruised.

1. What happened? What are you worried about next?

This case best fits the effects of a snake bite; rattlesnakes are most common, and local tissue necrosis is common to most varieties. Some rattler varieties, specifically the Mojave rattler, will cause neurotoxicity, but only in the SW US, where you also find plague, hantavirus, and various other sundry complaints like coccidiodomycosis.

2. What is the treatment?

Crofab, so named because it affects crotalid venom, the main genus of snakes in the US.

Case 3. A 4 year old girl is brought to the ED by her worried grandmother (mothers always let grandma take over these days). She has not been her self; she is sleepy, and vomited once earlier. She found an empty bottle in the girl's room. She gives it to you; it smells like Icy Hot (NO USING GOOGLE!) There isn't a label. Temp 38.2, HR 130, RR 36. Exam reveals a drowsy, slightly diaphoretic child, with coarse rhonchi bilaterally.

Basic labs: sodium 142, chloride 104, potassium 3.4, bicarb 15, glucose 78, creatinine 0.8, BUN 12.

1. What did the kid drink?

Although med students all know that aspirin overdose gives a classic metabolic picture, I didn't know until I smelled oil of wintergreen that the oil is chock full of salicylates. In fact if you look it up on wikipedia, it's the main ingredient. So don't keep it in your medicine cabinet where your kids can get to it.

2. Med students, what is the disturbance seen in the labs and vitals? What can you do to treat her?

Med Students will be able to tell you better, but salicylates create a mixed metabolic acidosis and respiratory alkalosis through direct stimulation of central breathing centers beyond physiologic compensation. There's some computations to do...maybe later. As far as treatment, you can start patients on a bicarbonate drip to alkalinize the urine and trap the acid in an ionic form. ASA is also dialyzable.

Case 4. Three sixteen and seventeen year old males (automatic geniuses, I was never stupid when I was that age) arrive in the ED, combative, mumbling, and completely incoherent. Found by the fuzz drinking funky tea. A representative exam on genius 1, temp 102.5, HR 140, BP 140/70; agitated, small pupils, with red, warm, dry skin.

1. What is the toxidrome (for non-medical readers, mostly my parents, a recognizable set of symptoms that identify a specific toxin)?

This is a classic case of jimson weed ingestion. This plant, believe it or not, grows all over the US and, when boiled, is a mild hallucinogen and a strong anticholinergic. The toxidrome is dry, flushed skin, tachycardia, dry mucous membranes, fever, slurred speech, hallucinations, tiny pupils, urinary retention, consipation.

2. What is the antidote? When you would you use it? When would you NOT use it? What else can you give them?

Physostigmine is a direct cholinesterase inhibitor, thus increasing the level of acetylcholine and reversing the 'anti' choliergic effects. It does, however, prolong the QT interval and precipitate VT, I think, in cases of TCA overdose, a class which has anticholinergic effects. So, in a kid who got into the cabinet, it's not a good choice unless you like coding little kids. You can also use benzodiazepines and bicarb. I'll have to look up why bicarb works.

Case 5. 3 year old Max is brought in by his father reeking of garlic, vomiting garlic, and not acting like his usual self. Temp 37.4, HR 145 and regular, RR 42. Hyperactive bowel sounds, coarse rhonchi, constricted pupils.

1. What did Max ingest? Why is it not illegal?

The garlic odor is characteristic of carbamate insecticides which reversibly bind to cholinesterase and cause the opposite of jimson weed--or DUMBBELS, defacation, urination, miosis, bronchorrhea, bradycardia, CNS excitement, lacrimation, salivation. Atropine works (see below), and so does benadryl in large doses theoretically. The other toxins in this class are organophospate insecticides, which are irreversible but take time to convert, and Sarin gas, which is irreversible and converts almost right away. I think these should be illegal. They're poison.

What is the treatment? Hint: he should talk to the geniuses above and get some of their tea.

Electrolyte Emergencies

The Cancun congress on EM had a great lecture available for download on electrolyte emergencies. I had wanted to look at these when I was on medicine, but they had a, well, different approach that took forever. This is much more EM specific.

Hyperkalemia is the most dangerous abnormality; the most common cause is 'not', that is, a lab draw error, hemolysis with the draw, and so on. An EKG guides how we treat the patient, so the first step in a work-up is re-draw and get an EKG.

Causes: Not; renal failure with acidosis; drugs over weeks or months (ACEI and ARBs, NSAIDs; and cell death (burns, tumor lysis). There are other causes, but these are the big ones.

EKG changes: tall T, loss of P, QRS widening, PR lengthening, sine wave (um, bad).

Treatment: calcium is only used in an emergency, defined by a widened QRS on EKG. Calcium for QRS (calcium chloride, it's faster), 2 amps of d50 and 10 U insulin, bicarb if acidotic but only if acidotic, albuterol nebs, fluid if hypovolemic.

hypokalemia=prolonged QT with U waves.

hypokalemia=hypomagnesemia, and K always goes with mag. We must replete both. If you don't give mag the K will stay intravascular and be excreted. The deficit is always worse than you think.

So, if you give K, give mag. Treat with EKG changes.

Hyponatremic emergencies manifest as altered mental status. Causes include runners drinking too much, women more than men, X use with dancing all night--water intoxication and hyponatremia. The big worry with hyponatremia is seizures and the AMS; the big worry with repletion is central pontine myelinolysis, or the so called 'locked-in syndrome', which is truly awful. Never correct a patient with symptomatic hyponatremia faster than 0.5 an hour or 10-12 a day. Seizures with Na below 120, like 100 or 110; intial 3% NaCl MAX 200 cc total, start with 100 cc bolus over 10 minutes. Must be previously healthy. So, the gorked out nursing home resident on diuretics and who knows what else who comes in 'just not themselves' with a sodium of 118 should not get 3% NaCl. The 19-year-old clubbing person with an empty water bottle seizing at 5 am with a sodium of 105 should, in two boluses, as above.

See? Much easier than the old hypovolemic-euvolemic-hypervolemic triad just for sodium and so on for each electrolyte...see this post.

My Pet Peeve

OK, so I can understand when the giant billboard in the side of the road in BFE Nebraska that says 'Abortion Stops a Beating Heart' uses some crazy EKG tracing that looks like V Tach, ironically, but I really can't stand it when people just sort of draw a squiggly line and call it an EKG tracing. And this one is on a book I got in the mail from a resident group. Really? Is that a tracing or not? I suppose perhaps a bit of a widenend QRS with a prominent R wave that might be in one of the precordial leads, but still? No P? And what's that squiggle where the ST segment should be? Is that some transient flutter wave? Gah! Please! Couldn't any med student after the first year draw a decent lead II P-QRS-T? For the love of Pete.

FMOE: Toxicology Cases

Here are some tox cases, one or two liners with vitals and questions. Pipe up if you think you know the answer. Answers will be posted within a week or so. When we did these stations, they provided a scent in a bottle. I'll try and describe them for you.

Case 1. 21 year old genius shows up in the ED. His girlfriend is concerned because he seems weak, acts like he's drunk, and is unsteady on his feet as well as slow in his responses. She is holding a plastic bag with what smells like model glue in it. Afebrile, RR 23, HR 80, BP 120/68.

1. What chemical element was this genius probably exposed to, given the odor?

2. What secondary disturbance is likely causing his symptoms, especially the weakness?

Case 2. A 25 year old sportsman was golfing when he felt a prick in his finger with some scant bleeding after searching for his golf ball in long grass. He finished the round, and now has increasing pain and swelling in his hand. He is starting to feel a bit weak. Temp 99.5, BP 85/50; right hand is tender, swollen, and bruised.

1. What happened? What are you worried about next?

2. What is the treatment?

Case 3. A 4 year old girl is brought to the ED by her worried grandmother (mothers always let grandma take over these days). She has not been her self; she is sleepy, and vomited once earlier. She found an empty bottle in the girl's room. She gives it to you; it smells like Icy Hot (NO USING GOOGLE!) There isn't a label. Temp 38.2, HR 130, RR 36. Exam reveals a drowsy, slightly diaphoretic child, with coarse rhonchi bilaterally.

Basic labs: sodium 142, chloride 104, potassium 3.4, bicarb 15, glucose 78, creatinine 0.8, BUN 12.

1. What did the kid drink?

2. Med students, what is the disturbance seen in the labs and vitals? What can you do to treat her?

Case 4. Three sixteen and seventeen year old males (automatic geniuses, I was never stupid when I was that age) arrive in the ED, combative, mumbling, and completely incoherent. Found by the fuzz drinking funky tea. A representative exam on genius 1, temp 102.5, HR 140, BP 140/70; agitated, small pupils, with red, warm, dry skin.

1. What is the toxidrome (for non-medical readers, mostly my parents, a recognizable set of symptoms that identify a specific toxin)?

2. What is the antidote? When you would you use it? When would you NOT use it? What else can you give them?

Case 5. 3 year old Max is brought in by his father reeking of garlic, vomiting garlic, and not acting like his usual self. Temp 37.4, HR 145 and regular, RR 42. Hyperactive bowel sounds, coarse rhonchi, constricted pupils.

1. What did Max ingest? Why is it not illegal?

What is the treatment? Hint: he should talk to the geniuses above and get some of their tea.

More next week, with the answers! I love my job!

Learning a Craft, Revised

So I suppose to prove I'm not a total grinch I should mention that my favorite Christmas moment is a 3-way tie between watching my one-year old play with his toys before moving on to the next one, building a snow fort and then sheltering from the wind with my middle daughter on Christmas Eve, and playing chess with my oldest daughter for the first time.

But the post is about learning the craft of intubation. Everyone talks about the art of medicine, but the craft is just as important--and, if you look at how we learn procedures, it sure mirrors an apprenticeship. We start off watching, then do it under close supervision for years.

The skill of intubation is by far the most important of all EM procedures. It saves lives and no one else does them like we do; anesthesia has far more repetition but under ideal circumstances (no eating cookies or you wait another six hours for your surgery). This post is about learning the craft with a record of my first attempts, for what it's worth.

I'm in the OR this month learning the craft. Here's a list of my first attempts. DL stands for direct laryngoscopy, which is the way it's done almost all the time. ASA scores range from 1 to 5, with 1 being healthy, 2 being stable minor problems, 3 major problems but controlled, 4 major with threat to life, and 5 not expected to live for 24 hours. By definition all airways in the ED should be 4 or 5. All attempts are first pass only; if I missed, someone else took over.

1st attempt DL: miss, ASA 2, no predicted airway difficulty. Didn't position patient properly.

2nd attempt DL: success, ASA 3, no predicted difficulty.

3rd attempt DL: success, ASA 3, no predicted difficuly. At this point I feel pretty good about myself.

4th attempt DL: miss, ASA 1, great view, couldn't pass tube, no predicted difficulty.

5th attempt DL: miss, grade 4 view, had to change blades, no predicted difficulty. Now not feeling so good.

6th attempt DL: success, ASA 2, no predicted difficulty.

7th attempt DL: miss, no predicted difficulty.

8th attempt DL: success, no predicted difficulty.

9th attempt DL: success, no predicted difficulty.

10th attempt DL: success, no predicted difficulty.

1st attempt glidescope: success, predicted difficult airway secondary to morbid obesity, poor jaw opening, short neck length.

11th attempt DL: success, no predicted difficulty.

12th attempt DL: success, no predicted difficulty.

Tally: 13 attempts, 1 difficult; 4 misses, 9 successes. Rate: 69.3%. An experienced operator in the ED should hit more than 98 or 99% of attempts, but I don't have numbers for first pass success; I think I'd be higher if I had to get the airway and there were no one to back me up. It's a difficult skill.

This is the new world of accountability; you really want to know what your doc knows and can do? There it is. Best I can say is I'm improving, right?

About attempt 8, my body started to know what to do, and I've been successful since. You can describe the procedure in words and it doesn't help--you have to do it. It DOES help to know what you're trying to do so you can, in retrospect, figure out what you did wrong. But in the true sense of a craft, the only way to truly learn it is to do it over and over again.

Before I intubated, there was a sequence to memorize: apart from preparation (which is arguably most important) the motor skill itself involves positioning the head in a 'sniffing' position, scissoring open the lower jaw, placing the laryngoscope just off the midline to the right and slowly advancing down the tongue, sweeping to the left. As I do this I verbalize what I see for the supervisor to know whether I'm lost or found; posterior pharynx with uvula, epiglottis, then, after the blade is placed above the epiglottis and it pulls on the hyoepiglottic ligament, I should see arytenoid cartilage, posterior, and anterior vocal cords. Once in the correct area the laryngoscope, hand, wrist, and elbow are raised 45 degrees towards the feet as a unit without torquing the scope to move the tongue and jaw out of the way of the view. If I'm lost, it comes out as I verbalize; perhaps I only see soft tissue, perhaps I can see epiglottis but not cords. If I can't see at least the posterior portion of the cords, my chance of successfully passing the tube drops to below 1 in 2.

Now that I've done it, even as I type this, I have visual memories for each step and it is much easier to remember. We must read about procedures before we do them but initially it is a memorized scaffold for knowledge; then, the first time the task is performed correctly, there is a sense of recognition as you realize what it feels like to raise the epiglottis. The above paragraph is long and unwieldy; the motion itself, for even a relative novice on an easy airway, is a fluid progression at best, so I'm trying with a thousand words to describe a motion that is best described by doing it.

Language is a poor substitute for the experience but it's a necessary starting point and the best we have to try and get someone ready for 'the show'.

The same is true of confirmation; to carefully watch the tube pass between the cords is the best way and you can look after placement. Before it was memorized; now, when I've passed the tube and that tube stands in the way of hypoxia and death for the patient, looking for fog in the tube, chest rise, CO2 return, listening for breath sounds on both sides--all are almost reflex already.

Now for the long years of solidifying and refining the skill; working with more and more difficult airways, worse situations, even cementing the initial knowledge.

How this is learned is an ethical question these days--is it OK to learn on patients? After these few weeks, I would ask, how can I not? If I were to be intubated, I would not want someone who had only learned on simulators. It's different. Simulators are great and they help make rote the preparation, the scaffold of knowledge I was speaking of above that is required for analysis and learning of the skill. But there's no substitute for actually doing it live.