A 53 year old reported daily ETOH use presents via EMS for seizure at home. As you approach the stretcher you wrack your brain for the right treatment algorithm, realizing that this patient may die without the correct medications....

Back pain. A chief complaint generally not considered among the top 5 most thrilling for EM docs. Hiding among a sea of benign musculoskeletal conditions, however, lurk a handful of diagnoses which will result in irreversible paralysis and severe loss of function for our patients. The trick, of course, is figuring out who needs expensive advanced imaging and who can go home with NSAIDS....read on for a case that definitely falls into the former category....

A 55 yo male presents with left knee pain

EM physicians see patients with headaches every day in the ED. The vast majority have a simple primary headache, but a tiny fraction of patients will have a much more serious etiology that might result in death, blindeness, or crippling neurologic complications if not promptly diagnosed. The trick, of course, is picking up on the serious causes of headaches...