ROX Index: Predicting Who Is or Isn’t Going to Fly on HFNC

On By eddyjoemdIn NIV: HFNC & BiPAP

We have all had this patient. Someone who is in acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, let's just call it pneumonia of some sort or ARDS, and the regular nasal cannula or a venti-mask can't cut it. They're not at the severity where you can eyeball the patient and just know that they need to be intubated. …

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aspirin covid

Aspirin & COVID-19: Does it Decrease the Severity of Illness?

On By eddyjoemdIn COVID-19

Addendum: As data changes, perspectives should change, too. This post on aspirin and COVID was initially posted on 10/25/20. Since then more robust data has been published. I have left my perspective up on this page for the sake of transparency. The original post starts now. Let's answer the first question these academic elites will …

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Cardiac Arrest & COVID: A Very Poor Combination

On By eddyjoemdIn COVID-19

The stories of COVID patients spontaneously meeting their demise in the non-ICU and non-stepdown units have decreased substantially during the course of the pandemic. My non-scientific rationale for this is that we're getting better at anti-coagulating our patients and therefore decreasing the incidence of the pro-thrombotic sequelae of COVID. That being said, when these patients …

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Tocilizumab in COVID: The Data is Trickling Out

On By eddyjoemdIn COVID-19

This page contains links to the different papers that have been published during the pandemic regarding the utilization of Tocilizumab in treating COVID. Citations for Tocilizumab papers Published on 12/17/2020Salama C, Han J, Yau L, Reiss WG, Kramer B, Neidhart JD, Criner GJ, Kaplan-Lewis E, Baden R, Pandit L, Cameron ML, Garcia-Diaz J, Chávez V, …

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Intubation/Extubation: a High-Risk Aerosol Generating COVID Procedure?

On By eddyjoemdIn Airway Management, COVID-19

I remember like it was yesterday the first COVID patient who I intubated. I was scared. Heck, I still have a healthy respect for the procedure because these patients don’t do well on the vent. In addition, they tend to tank their O2 sats as soon as the RSI drugs kick in. Everything needs to …

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CVICU

CVICU: Management of Post-Op Cardiac Surgery Patients

On By eddyjoemdIn CVICU

This post is a collection of evidence-based practices in the management of patients in the cardiac and cardiothoracic ICU (CVICU) with my personal take on it. I am working on improving this page regularly. The last update was on 10/06/22.Let's start off with the basics. Patients who have cardiac surgery, especially those who go "on …

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Emotional Intelligence in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

On By eddyjoemdIn ICU Pearls, Misc. Medicine

Dr James Stoller from the Cleveland Clinic published this review on emotional intelligence needed in ICU physicians/practitioners. You can be the smartest person in the world but unless you have developed the key components of emotional intelligence, many of those skills will not have their time to shine. When I was in training, I cared for …

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