Asthma is one of the most common causes of respiratory distress seen in the emergency department. Most often, our patients will get better with some nebulizers and steroids. But when this fails, treatment becomes more complicated and patients can decompensate quickly. What are your options to step up therapy in your most severe asthma cases?

You are caring for a sick patient with an acute COPD exacerbation. What O2 sat should you target? What meds should you give? If you have to intubate, what are the issues you'll have to deal with? This week we glean some valuable management pearls for the management acute COPD exacerbations from this month's Internal Medicine module at Cooper.