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Emergency Medicine Cases

Emergency Medicine Cases

By: Dr. Anton Helman
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Emergency Medicine Cases – Where the Experts Keep You in the Know. For show notes, quizzes, videos and more learning tools please visit emergencymedicinecases.comMedicine Cases Education Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease Science
Episodes
  • Ep 218 Substance Use Disorder in the ED – Stigma, Compassion and System Change

    Ep 218 Substance Use Disorder in the ED – Stigma, Compassion and System Change
    May 19 2026
    Emergency physicians pride themselves on recognizing and treating life-threatening illness under pressure. Yet one of the most lethal, common, and treatable conditions presenting to our EDs still often receives fragmented, stigmatized care: substance use disorder. The opioid crisis has evolved into an era of increasingly toxic and unpredictable drug supplies, including ultra-potent synthetic opioids such as nitazenes. Between 2016 and 2021, more than 27,000 Canadians died from opioid toxicity, while opioid-related ED visits continue to rise sharply. Patients discharged with untreated opioid use disorder face mortality rates approaching 5% within 12 months. Despite this, substance use disorder is still not consistently approached with the same urgency and systems-based care as other chronic high-risk illnesses. In this episode, Dr. Bjug Borgundvaag, Tish Mizon and Kari Herbert discuss how stigma affects care in the ED and how trauma-informed communication, person-first language, compassionate care, peer navigators and Bridge-style addiction programs can improve outcomes for both patients and clinicians. Please support EM Cases ongoing Free Open Access Medical Education learning platform with a donation here: https://emergencymedicinecases.com/donation/
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Ep 217 Pediatric Agitation: Assessment and Management

    Ep 217 Pediatric Agitation: Assessment and Management
    Apr 28 2026
    Pediatric agitation in the Emergency Department is one of those presentations that can escalate quickly and leave even experienced clinicians feeling on edge. It is high-risk, resource-intensive, and often unfolds in an already overstimulating environment where small missteps can make things worse. At the same time, agitation is not a diagnosis, it is a clinical presentation that may reflect anything from psychiatric illness to delirium, intoxication, trauma, or simply a child overwhelmed by the ED itself. So how do we approach these patients in a way that is safe, systematic, and effective? In this episode with guest experts, Dr. Susan Duffy and Dr. Thomas Chun, we tackle the questions that come up at the bedside: How do we rapidly distinguish mild, moderate, and severe agitation in a way that actually changes what we do next? Which patients are most likely to escalate, and how can we intervene early to prevent that? When should we be worried about a medical or toxicologic cause rather than assuming this is “behavioural”? What does effective verbal de-escalation actually look like in a busy ED, and why does it so often fail? When is a "code white" for emergency security measures truly indicated, and how do we avoid turning it into an escalation trigger? How should we be thinking about medications: what to choose, when to give them, and how to avoid over-sedation? And once the patient is finally calm, how do we make sure we aren't missing the underlying diagnosis? and many more... Please consider a donation to EM Cases to support ongoing high quality Free Open Access Medical Education https://emergencymedicinecases.com/donation/
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    1 hr and 22 mins
  • Ep 216 Cardiac Arrest Update: Beyond the 2025 ACLS Guidelines Part 2 – Medications, Airway, Termination and Post-ROSC Care

    Ep 216 Cardiac Arrest Update: Beyond the 2025 ACLS Guidelines Part 2 – Medications, Airway, Termination and Post-ROSC Care
    Apr 7 2026
    In this Part 2 or our 2-part EM Cases podcast series on Cardiac Arrest Update, Dr. Sheldon Cheskes and Dr. Rob Simard take us beyond the algorithms and into the real-world decision-making of cardiac arrest care. We answer questions like: Do vasopressin and steroids improve survival or just ROSC? Should we be giving amiodarone earlier—and is lidocaine just as good? When should we use calcium, bicarbonate, or magnesium, and when should we avoid them? What role does ketamine play in CPR-induced consciousness? How should we choose between supraglottic airways and endotracheal intubation? What are the pitfalls of waveform capnography (ETCO2) to help guide CPR quality, detect ROSC, and inform prognosis? What is the role of PoCUS and TEE during cardiac arrest? When should we terminate resuscitation—and how do ETCO2 and POCUS factor into that decision? Should we widen the criteria to consider thrombolytics and who should go to the cath lab, and should we be ordering whole-body CT after ROSC for everyone who isn't going to the cath lab or getting ECMO? And finally, what are the key post-ROSC targets that actually impact neurologic outcomes in cardiac arrest patients? and many more...Please consider a donation to EM Cases to support ongoing high quality Free Open Access Medical Education https://emergencymedicinecases.com/donation/
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    1 hr and 42 mins
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