The Unconscious Patient – 10 Ways to Improve Management (SWE)

Unconscious patients are tricky

They can be out cold due to several reasons and they refuse to tell you what’s wrong with them.How can you quickly find the cause of their altered mental status? What key aspects should you address in your initial assessment? What about gastric lavage? Antidotes? Do you always need a CT? What pre-test probabilities exist for different causes and what findings in your initial assessment have strong likelihood ratios?In this talk from Karolinska’s GULD series, Jonathan Ilicki offers a structured and evidence-based framework for assessing the unconscious patient. It covers topics such as:

• why mnemonics like HUSK MIDAS and AEIOU-TIPS can be bad
• how to avoid naloxone-induced pulmonary edema
• how age, blood pressure and neuro findings can help you identify the cause of altered mental status
• when one should consider gastric lavage 
• and much more

The lecture’s in Swedish and has English subtitles.

Video

https://youtu.be/O2A33la_Abw

Audio

Slides

 

References

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