Medical Specialties Commons^™

Case Report: Vocal Cord Paralysis In The Ed, Richard Baluyot, Russell Mordecai, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The incident rate of vocal cord paralysis varies greatly depending on the cause of paralysis as well as if it's unilateral or bilateral, for this poster we will be focusing on unilateral paralysis. From 1985 to 1995 cancer was the primary cause for vocal cord paralysis, however this shifted to primarily iatrogenic surgical injury from 1996 to 2005. In another study it was found that idiopathic paralysis and tumors to both be the primary cause (31.11% respectively), with surgery consisting of 28.89%, and trauma, brain problems, systemic disease and other causes being 2.2%.

Spontaneous Iliac Arteriovenous Fistula, High-Output Heart Failure, And Cardiac Arrest, J. Maxwell Piraneo, Russell Mordecai, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

High-output heart failure is a potentially life-threatening condition that can lead to cardiac arrest. The most common causes of this condition are obesity, liver disease, arteriovenous shunts, lung disease, and myeloproliferative disorders, however the exact prevalence remains uncertain [1]. Here we describe an unusual case of cardiac arrest as a consequence of high-output heart failure, secondary to rupture of an iliac artery aneurysm into the common iliac vein, with arteriovenous (AV) fistula formation.

Case Report: The Challenge Of Balancing Stewardship And Advocacy, Samuel Thalathoti, Kishan Patel, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

We report a case of a 62-year-old female who presented with chief complaint of generalized weakness and was ultimately diagnosed with hypereosinophilia. This chief complaint is challenging for many EM physicians, and the differential diagnosis of generalized weakness is vast. Etiologies of generalized weakness in the adult population ranges from infection, dehydration, cardiovascular disease, to neurologic compromise. It is crucial for the Emergency Physician to put emphasis on proper history collection, detailed physical exam, and appropriate ancillary testing. In this case report we showcase the significance of the optimal evaluation of life-threatening disorders that presents as generalized weakness, as well …

Case Report: Cavitary Pneumonia In A 28 Year Old Male, Dan Zaayenga, Katelyn Courtney

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Cavitary pneumonia can be caused by several different mechanisms. Such causes include suppurative necrosis (pyogenic lung abscess), caseous necrosis (tuberculosis), ischemic necrosis (pulmonary infarction) cystic dilatation of lung structures (ball value obstruction and Pneumocystis pneumonia) as well as malignant processes. Causes are subject to both environmental factors and host susceptibility. The most common cause of infectious process is tuberculosis with its propensity to cause extensive caseous necrosis. The potential for secondary infection after an individual develops a cavitary pneumonia is also great as it provides a shelter for various pathogens the flourish in an environment otherwise usually well-guarded by host …

Case Study Of Horner Syndrome Due To Internal Carotid Artery Dissection, Kajel Patel

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Carotid artery dissection can occur either spontaneously or because of trauma. It is usually the most common cause of stroke in middle-aged patients. The symptoms can be transient or persistent and typically occur a few days after the inciting traumatic event.

Case Report: Abrupt Psychosis Or Nmda Receptor Encephalitis?, Alexis Dunn, Neelesh Parikh, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

We report a case of a 46-year-old female who was initially committed to a psychiatric facility for new onset schizophrenia symptoms. She later had an extensive workup in the hospital due to leukocytosis and was believed to have NMDA Receptor Encephalitis as the cause for her new behavioral symptoms. This case report aims to educate EM (emergency medicine) physicians to keep a broad differential diagnosis on patients who present with new onset, unprovoked psychosis later in life.

Sigmoid Perforation Extending Into The Abdominal Wall, Zamran Masih, Wayne Tamaska, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Sigmoid colon perforation and spread into the abdominal wall is a rare condition that can occur due to various causes such as diverticulitis, trauma, malignancy, or iatrogenic injury during surgery. Although rare, sigmoid colon perforation into the abdominal wall can result in significant morbidity and mortality if not promptly diagnosed and treated. Most common cause of diverticular disease leading to perforation is diverticulitis, accounting for 60% of all colonic perforations.

New Onset Lichen Planus And Back Pain Leading To Discovery Of A Peri Aortic Abscess, Monica Diep, Wayne Tamaska, Philip Carhart, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Back pain is a common chief complaint in the emergency department. With the differential ranging from musculoskeletal pain to cauda equina, there are a plethora of diagnoses. Differentiating between benign back pain and back pain that warrants further evaluation and even possible emergent surgical intervention is often a challenge in the acute setting. In this case report, a strange combination of all new symptoms including lichen planus, fevers, chills and atraumatic back pain lead to the eerie and very unexpected diagnosis of a peri-aortic abscess.

Case Report And Brief Review: A Puzzling Case Of Leg And Ankle Swelling, Michael Morris, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna, Robin Lahr, James Lee

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Here we present the case of a medical student in his twenties who had experienced episodes of heat edema that had been previously evaluated at other EDs and thought to be possible DVT. An awareness of heat edema as a minor heat-related illness is important in order to avoid unnecessary testing and in order to help prevent future episodes

Integration Into Professional Practice: Emergency Medical Services, Eva Finkelstein

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Beyond Covid-19: The Impact Of Recent Pandemics On Medical Students And Their Education: A Scoping Review, Moneb Bughrara, Stephanie Swanberg, Victoria Lucia, Keaton Schmitz, Dawn Jung, Tracy Wunderlich-Barillas

Posters

Over the past two years, COVID-19 has greatly altered undergraduate medical education (UME) as well as daily life. Medical schools across the world were disrupted and had to immediately adapt the educational experience to the online environment in order to continue the delivery of quality UME. However, COVID-19 was not the only recent pandemic. This posed the question, were similar disruptions and adaptations also seen in recent past pandemics such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that could have prepared UME for COVID-19? This scoping review investigated the educational and personal impact of recent …

Family/Decision Maker Perception Of Patient Care And Withdrawal Of Life Sustaining Treatment, Joshua Paul, Revelle Gappy, Tracy Wunderlich-Barillas, Robert A. Swor

Posters

Withdrawal of life sustaining treatment (WLST) is the process by which a patient has life supporting measures removed when a decision is reached that further care if futile. This process is a complex interplay of medical science, the healthcare teams’ past experiences, and communication with the patient’s family/decision maker Family members are commonly called upon to make critical decisions regarding the provision or withdrawal of patient care. Our objective was to describe the perceptions and experiences of the family members of patients who were admitted to an intensive care unit after resuscitation from an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA).

Simulation-Based Resuscitative Transesophageal Echocardiography Training For Emergency Medicine Residents, August Felix, Andrew Fried, Jessica Hathaway, Tania D. Strout

Costas T. Lambrew Research Retreat 2023

Introduction: Resuscitative TEE is an emerging tool in the cardiac arrest tool-box, and can improve outcomes in OHCA.

• Identifies reversible causes

• Decreases time off chest

• Evaluates compression efficacy

• Improves assessment during pulse-checks

• Simulation training can prepare EM residents to obtain and interpret TEE views on a live patient.

Befast Assessment In A Rural Community Hospital – The Birch Study, Caroline Knight, Eileen Hawkins, Hilary Merrifield, Laura Stein, Robert Stein

Costas T. Lambrew Research Retreat 2023

Background: There are known regional disparities in treatment rates with thrombolysis and thrombectomy for acute ischemic stroke. BEFAST has been implemented in acute stroke protocols to aid in recognition of signs of stroke, but its utility in a rural ED is not well known.

A Prospective Sonographic Evaluation Of Peripheral Intravenous Catheter Associated Thrombophlebitis, Nicholas Mielke, Steven Johnson, Patrick Karabon, Amit Bahl

Posters

Thrombophlebitis associated with peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) is a poorly described complication in the literature. Given limited accuracy of current assessment tools and poor documentation in the medical record, the true incidence and relevance of this complication is misrepresented. We aimed to identify risk factors in the development of thrombophlebitis using an objective methodology coupling serial diagnostic ultrasound and clinical assessment.

Evaluation Of Online Patient Information Regarding Emergency Center Utilization, Rachel Truland, Steven Joseph

Posters

The decision a patient makes when seeking emergency medical care comes with risks and ambiguity if the right decision is not made. The internet is increasingly accessible to patients, and they often consult an internet search prior to seeking healthcare. The aim of this study is to assess the readability and reliability of online information regarding a patient’s decision to seek emergency care.

Rapid Response Team Codes Following Transition-Of-Care From The Emergency Department To An Inpatient Medicine Unit, Kerrin Bersani, Brett Todd

Posters

Transitions-of-care from the emergency department (ED) to an inpatient unit have been identified as a high-risk period for medical error due to multiple causes, such as communication mishaps, excessive workload, variability in patient flow, and unclear assignment of responsibility. Patients who experience a diagnostic error are also at increased risk for poor outcomes, including increased length-of-stay and mortality. Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) are frequently utilized by hospitals to address a sudden deterioration in clinical status, often after a transition-of-care. We investigated the occurrence of RRT in patients shortly after a transition-of-care from the ED to a medicine unit. Further, we …

Impact Of Earlier Ophthalmology Clerkships On Medical Student Match Rates In Ophthalmology, Andrew Lee, Steven Joseph

Posters

The purpose of this study is to analyze the association between earlier clerkship exposure and match success, specifically in ophthalmology. Medical schools are constantly changing their clinical curriculums to provide a stronger foundational education to their students. The structure of each medical school’s clerkship curriculum varies in timing, length and availability of certain core and elective rotations. Gaining a better understanding of the factors that affect student match rates in certain specialties can influence changes in clinical curricula to maximize future match success.

Abc's Of Geriatric Trauma, Teresita Hogan

Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine

The ABC's approach to geriatric trauma alerts clinicians to specific important factors in emergency evaluation of an injured older adult.

Leveraging The Electronic Health Record To Implement Emergency Department Delirium Screening, Anita N Chary, Elise Brickhouse, Beatrice Torres, Ilianna Santangelo, Christopher R Carpenter, Shan W Liu, Kyler M Godwin, Aanand D Naik, Hardeep Singh, Maura Kennedy

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to understand how emergency departments (EDs) use health information technology (HIT), and specifically the electronic health record (EHR), to support implementation of delirium screening.

METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 ED clinician-administrators, representing 20 EDs, about how they used HIT resources to implement delirium screening. Interviews focused on challenges participants experienced when implementing ED delirium screening and EHR-based strategies they used to overcome them. We coded interview transcripts using dimensions from the Singh and Sittig sociotechnical model, which addresses use of HIT in complex adaptive health care systems. Subsequently, we analyzed data …

Major Differences In Transcriptional Alterations In Dorsal Root Ganglia Between Spinal Cord Injury And Peripheral Neuropathic Pain Models, Raquel Cuevas-Diaz Duran, Yong Li, Anibal Garza Carbajal, Yanan You, Carmen W Dessauer, Jiaqian Wu, Edgar T Walters

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic, often intractable, pain is caused by neuropathic conditions such as traumatic peripheral nerve injury (PNI) and spinal cord injury (SCI). These conditions are associated with alterations in gene and protein expression correlated with functional changes in somatosensory neurons having cell bodies in dorsal root ganglia (DRGs). Most studies of DRG transcriptional alterations have utilized PNI models where axotomy-induced changes important for neural regeneration may overshadow changes that drive neuropathic pain. Both PNI and SCI produce DRG neuron hyperexcitability linked to pain, but contusive SCI produces little peripheral axotomy or peripheral nerve inflammation. Thus, comparison of transcriptional signatures of DRGs …

Metformin-Associated Lactic Acidosis: A Case Report, Joshua Santoli, Jamie Lee Aldakkour, Hossein Tohidi, Yizhi Lin

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Introduction

Metformin is considered a first-line therapy for patients with diabetes secondary to its cost efficiency, minimal side effects, and marked improvement in one’s hemoglobin A1c; however, metformin is avoided in patients with renal insufficiency out of concern for drug accumulation and lactic acidosis. In fact, there is a black box warning for metformin, identifying lactic acidosis as the inciting trigger for fatal arrhythmias and death.

Case Presentation

A 62-year-old male presented with multiple episodes of nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and decreased urine output for 3 days after working on a roof, all day in the summer heat. He did …

Accidental Extravasation Of Mitomycin C Into The Subcutaneous Tissue, Johnathon Chung, Brooke Walterscheid, Jose Lopez-Vera, Hytham Rashid, Mike K. Liang

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Introduction

Mitomycin C (MMC) is a common chemotherapeutic agent used to treat a variety of solid tumors. Cutaneous adverse events are rare, but MMC is a known vesicant reported to cause tissue necrosis and sloughing, erythema, and ulceration if incorrectly infused into the subcutaneous tissue. Definitive treatment of extravasation injuries due to MMC depends on the severity of the cutaneous manifestation, which includes stopping the infusion, removing the catheter, or possible debridement.

Case Presentation

We present the case of a 70-year-old female with extensive soft-tissue injury secondary to extravasation of MMC that required hospital admission and surgical intervention to remove …

Everything I Needed To Know To Be A Pediatric Emergency Room Doctor, I Learned As A Waitress, Sarah Gard Lazarus

Patient Experience Journal

When I began my career as a pediatric emergency medicine physician, I believed I was prepared to take on any medical emergency. However, I was not prepared to provide a good patient family experience. Throughout my years of training, I was not taught productive ways of interacting with patients and was unaware of how impactful the patient family experience would be. Negative patient family experience scores affected my interactions with patients, my shared decision making and my ability to provide quality care. After working to improve my scores, I focused on skills I obtained in a non-medical setting, as a …

Great Expectations: A Multi-Site Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Novel Patient Expectations Communication Tool In The Emergency Department, Martin Wegman, Jennifer Chapman, Michael Wakely, Hayley Williams, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Piwowarski, Penelope Cote

South Atlantic Division GME Research Day 2023

No abstract provided.

Glaucoma Associated With Sinusitis: A Case Report, Nawzad Jacksi, Jennifer Chapman, Martin Wegman

South Atlantic Division GME Research Day 2023

No abstract provided.

Limitations Of Telemedicine Vs. Face-To-Face Eye Examination In A Patient With New Headaches, Joseph Hallak, Od, Danielle Kalberer, Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Background: During the emergence and rise of COVID-19, precaution directives and limitations on in-person eye examinations re-routed a significant portion of care to telemedicine and virtual modalities. While these technologies allowed for healthcare communications that otherwise could not occur during such trying times, there are major limitations to these sanctioned applications. This report will present a seemingly benign case that could have easily been re-routed from an in-person examination to a telemedicine version due to the patient’s seemingly “routine” vision complaints.

Case Report: A 50-year-old male patient contacted the eye clinic with a complaint of a minor, new, unexplained headache …

Diagnosis And Management Of Colon Cancer Patients Presenting In Advanced Stages Of Complications, Vlad Denis Constantin, Adrian Silaghi, Dragos Epistatu, Anca Silvia Dumitriu, Stana Paunica, Daniela Gabriela Bălan, Bogdan Socea

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Colorectal cancer is an important health problem with a significant impact on the individual and society. Malignancy (including colorectal cancer) is usually slightly symptomatic in its initial stages. This causes cancer to be discovered in some patients accidentally (either through screening tests in predisposed individuals or during routine investigations for other diseases), while in other patients the colorectal cancer is discovered in late stages, when the symptoms are much more intense due to complications. Unfortunately, such advanced cases of the disease have high rates of morbidity and mortality even with treatment. Current treatment methods are usually complex, interdisciplinary, causing significant …

That’S Not Your Implant!, Janet Han, Do, Elizabeth Paterek, Md, Faaem

Department of Emergency Medicine Posters

History of Present Illness

CHIEF COMPLAINT: Left breast pain/swelling

53-year-old female with PMHx of bilateral breast implants, IV drug use, and hypertension presents to the emergency department with swelling and pain to the left breast over the last 5 months after an assault with trauma to the area. She was seen at a previous hospital for these symptoms 3 months ago and reports fluid was drained from the left breast at that time. She reports subjective fevers and chills but denies other symptoms at this time including drainage or discharge from the breast/ nipple, chest pain, or shortness of breath. …

An Inflection Point To Improve Emergency Care For Older Adults, Jonny Macias Tejada, Michael Malone, Kevin Biese

Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine

Not applicable.