Pelvic Trauma

Pelvic trauma is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Prompt recognition and treatment of pelvic injury in the trauma patient is key. Stabilization of both patient & pelvis are paramount.

Lisfranc injuries

Quick Review of Lisfranc Injuries Lisfranc injures are a spectrum which result in a sprain or complete disruption of the tarsometatarsal joints of the midfoot.  They most commonly occur at the base of the 2nd metatarsal with oftentimes subtle or even absent findings on standards x-ray views, especially when they result from low velocity injury. What is mechanism of …

Lunate and perilunate dislocations

A weekend warrior trying to finish up painting that last side of the house takes a tumble off his ladder and lands on his left hand.  He has a palpable deformity on the volar aspect of the distal radius and painful active and passive ROM but is otherwise neurovascularly intact with no median nerve neuropathy.  The …

Blunt chest trauma

Being in a car accident, even the most benign one imaginable, can be stressful for patients. Inherently, if they have any chest pain they’re going to be convinced they’ve sheared their aorta right off its hinges. While that may be of concern to them, we are pretty certain that their aorta is still intact if they still are alive, but did they sustain a cardiac contusion? How do we even figure out if they had one? And what the heck do we do with them if they did in fact have a cardiac contusion?

Gone fishin’

The weather is finally starting to warm up and the fish are biting.  Unfortunately, amateur and pro fishermen alike will also either catch themselves or their friend while out on the waterways this summer.  While a small fishhook lodged in a finger may seem trivial compared to some of the more traumatic injuries we see, …

Fat embolism syndrome

Typically when we start talking about anything related to fat embolisms our minds go immediately to trauma and long bone fractures as the cause, but this isn’t always the case. The constellation of signs and symptoms of respiratory insufficiency, neurologic dysfunction and petechial rash which are typically associated with fat embolism syndrome can also be caused by pancreatitis, sickle cell disease and liposuction; all of which show up regularly in the Emergency Department. With mortality rates as high as 20%, despite the fact that FES usually doesn’t present for at least 12 hours after the initial event, it should be something that we are aware of.