IV lidocaine for analgesia in the ED?

Clinical scenario:

You’re in the midst of a busy evening shift, when out of the corner of your eye you think you notice a patient you just took care of a few days ago. You check the board, and sure enough you’re right. She is an unfortunate female in her 20's with a history of SLE complicated by both  ESRD on dialysis and recurrent VTE. She also has chronic recurring chest pain of unclear etiology. She has had several full cardiac workups and CT imaging which have yet to reveal an etiology of her recurring pain. She tells you the pain is identical in character to her prior presentations. It is not associated with SOB, diaphoresis, lightheadedness, palpitations, or N/V. The patient is not interested in further diagnostics, and flat-out refuses admission, further CT imaging, or cardiac testing. She just wants some relief from her pain. In the past, hydromorphone at relatively high doses has been somewhat effective, but your attending is wary of continuing to provide high-dose hydromorphone at frequent intervals during your patient’s repeated ED visits. He suggests IV lidocaine may be effective for your patient.

Clinical question:

Is IV lidocaine a safe and effective parenteral analgesic alternative to narcotic pain control in the ED?

#FOAMed Digest No. 2: Breathless Love

Welcome back! Fresh new FOAMy goodness for you, this time with an emphasis on airway and pulmonary care. Let’s do it!

Three Stars:

1. No way around it: “Delayed Sequence Intubation” is the new hotness. If you want to be one of the cool kids, you better get on board. I’ll let the more graphically-minded folks at EMCurious lay it all out for you with a prototypical case. Don’t miss the links – more excellent FOAMed resources on DSI.

(And Weingart’s seminal paper on the subject is required reading at this point.)

(And, oh yeah, ketamine does NOT increase ICP. Let’s use these two systematic reviews 1 & 2 to stop the foolishness already.)

2. Someday you will need to perform a cricothyrotomy. Accept it as reality, and do everything you can to prepare for it. Start here, with Weingart’s lecture on the surgical airway delivered at the SMACC Gold conference last fall. This page from the EMCrit blog has compiled all sorts of great surgical airway resources from around the FOAMed world all in one spot, including can’t-miss stuff about the scalpel-finger-bougie technique and Weingart’s pre-intubation checklist. You should probably add it to your favorites list now.

3. Wouldn’t be a FOAMed Digest without getting a little off-topic, and Rick Body’s recent contributions over at St. Elmyn’s regarding ACS & “low-risk” chest pain in the ED are too good to pass up. Great post analyzing his recent paper, which concluded ED physicians simply aren’t capable of ruling out ACS in chest pain patients with an acceptable accuracy using only the clinical exam. Dr. Body also gives you a run-down of how to properly utilize high-sensitivity troponin in his talk from SMACC Gold.

(Link to Body's paper here.)

Oldie But Goodie:

By the end of our Ultrasound rotation, we can all diagnose pneumothorax with ultrasound at the bedside. It’s time to take it next-level. A-lines, B-lines, pneumonia vs edema…the experts at the Ultrasound Podcast help you figure it all out in a two-part 1 & 2 podcast.

F(FN)OAMed:

Sanjay Arora and Mike Menchine, hosts of the PaperChase segment on EM:RAP, summarize the current literature about how terrible we are at adequately sedating patients after RSI. Roc lasts longer than Sux – the patients won’t be able to tell us they need sedation!

(Links to relevant papers in the show notes.)

The Gunner Files:

1. Brett Sweeny at EMDocs provides an exhaustive review of FOAMed resources regarding permissive hypotension in trauma. Great lectures and podcasts from some of the brightest minds in EM & trauma surgery.

2. We’re seeing it already – asthma cases are starting to pile up over on the SLCH side. Luckiliy for you, Pediatric EM rockstar Andy Sloas just published an excellent podcast on the evaluation and management of asthma in the Peds ED.

3. Next time you’re consulting Ortho or Plastics for a hand injury, sound like you know what you’re talking about. The folks over at EMin5 hit you with the quick rundown on the neuro exam of the hand.

4. Last week, St. Elmyn’s helped the rooks get up to speed when it came to dealing with the dyspneic patient in the ED (and I bet the seniors learned a thing or two as well). This time, get your mind right when faced with a syncopal patient.

5. Who doesn’t love infographics? And if they actually help us learn something about managing septic patients, that’s just a bonus! Very well done by EMCurious, with embedded links to the relevant studies!

6. New podcast from R.E.B.E.L.EM, summarizing the results of a meta-analysis just published this month in Annals which concluded prehospital application of NIPPV in patients with severe respiratory distress regardless of cause reduced need for intubation (NNT 8) and in-hospital mortality (NNT 18). 

w00t prehospital medicine!
(Original pub here.)

That’s all, folks! Go get your learn on!

Sam Smith, PGY-3