Gun Laws and Mass Shootings: A Call to Action

by Anthony CatapanoSilk City Blog, Trauma, UncategorizedPosted on Comments are Disabled

Written by Sarah Aly, DO
This post first appeared on REBEL EM

Background: Rob Elementary. Columbine. Sandy Hook. Pulse Night Club. Tops Grocery Store. Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church. Virginia Beach. The Tree of Life Synagogue. Santa Fe High School. The New York City Subway. The Las Vegas Harvest Music Festival. Aurora Movie Theater. The El Paso Walmart. Tulsa. The list goes on.

The United States has a unique epidemic: mass shootings. There is no universal definition of a mass shooting but it is often referred to as an event where greater than four individuals are killed by a single perpetrator (Everytown Research & Policy, 2022). Outside of the US, mass shootings are rare events (Bloomberg 2022, Snopes 2018).

In the United States, we continue to have an average of 19 mass shootings per year (Everytown Research & Policy, 2022). Medical providers, especially Emergency Physicians, bear witness to the toll of mass shootings as we sit on the interface between the community and the hospital. As a result, it is important for us to understand the role of public policy in this epidemic.

Clinical Question: Do states with permissive gun laws have more mass shootings than states with restrictive gun laws?

REBEL Core Cast – Basics of EM – Introduction

by Anthony CatapanoAirway, Cardiology, Endocrine, ENT, Genitourinary, Heme/Onc, Infectious Disease, Neuro, OB/GYN, Orthopedics, Renal, Silk City Blog, Surgery, The Tox Box, TraumaPosted on Comments are Disabled

Written by EJ Wright, MD
This post first appeared on REBEL Cast

Welcome to the EMRA Basics of Emergency Medicine Podcast. I am your host EJ Wright, and the following series is an all encompassing approach to the most common chief complaints in the ED based on the well known EMRA Basics of Emergency Medicine, A Chief Complaint-Based Guide. Each cast will highlight myself and a guest attending physician as we take new learners through the differentials, red flags, physical exam findings, and a sample presentation that you need to know to treat patients in the ED.

Pelvic Trauma

by Anthony CatapanoConference Cast, Silk City Blog, TraumaPosted on Comments are Disabled

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.

Trauma Month!

by Anthony CatapanoTraumaPosted on Comments are Disabled

We love us some trauma here at Joes! Check out our favorite sources of FOMED that supplemented our Tintinalli readings!   Trauma 1 Cant Miss Readings: RebelEM: Ten Commandments of Trauma Resuscitation http://rebelem.com/ten-trauma-resuscitation-commandments/ RebelEM: Spinal Immobilization in Trauma Patients http://rebelem.com/spinal-immobilization-in-trauma-patients/ PEMPlaybook: Multisystem Trauma in Children Part 1: Airway, Chest Tubes, Thoracotomy http://pemplaybook.org/podcast/multisystem-trauma-in-children-part-one-airway-chest-tubes-and-resuscitative-thoracotomy/ Part 2: Massive …

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TRANEXAMIC ACID (TXA)

by Anthony CatapanoCritical Care, ENT, Heme/Onc, OB/GYN, Procedures, Silk City Blog, TraumaPosted on Comments are Disabled

TRANEXAMIC ACID (TXA) By: Hima Khamar M.D., PGY3 Tranexamic acid (TXA) has become a huge asset in the world of emergency medicine when it comes to controlling hemorrhage. The main use in the ED is in traumatic hemorrhage, but there are many other uses for TXA. In this article, I will discuss some of the …

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Lisfranc injuries

by Anthony CatapanoOrthopedics, Silk City Blog, TraumaPosted on Comments are Disabled

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 …

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Lunate and perilunate dislocations

by Anthony CatapanoOrthopedics, Silk City Blog, TraumaPosted on Comments are Disabled

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 …

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Blunt chest trauma

by Anthony CatapanoCardiology, Silk City Blog, TraumaPosted on Comments are Disabled

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’

by Anthony CatapanoProcedures, Silk City Blog, TraumaPosted on Comments are Disabled

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, …

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Fat embolism syndrome

by Anthony CatapanoOrthopedics, Silk City Blog, TraumaPosted on Comments are Disabled

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.