hyperkalemia

Critical Cases - Hyperkalemia Emergency!

A 56 year old male presents to the ED with confusion and abdominal pain. You notice a fistula in his upper extremity. A tech hands you his triage ECG and you scrutinize it for the tell-tale signs of a common, life-threatening diagnosis in hemodialysis patients, while wondering what the initial steps in management are....

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Back to Basics: Succinylcholine and Hyperkalemia

“Airway cart to 9A. Intern, this tube is yours. What meds do you want?”

After the initial self-pulse check and change of scrub pants, two words come to mind: SOAP ME. Not in the literal sense, which may or may not be necessary depending on how nervous one is, but in the handy-dandy-easy-to-remember-in-high-pressure-situations-mnemonic sense. The deer-in-headlights (AKA intern-in-headlights look aside), this edition aims to take a look into an expected adverse reaction with a commonly used rapid sequence intubation (RSI) medication: hyperkalemia associated with succinylcholine administration.

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