Medical Alarm Fatigue

Alarms are an important part of clinical care as it serves as a warning to a possible medical error or an impending medical emergency. But when they occur frequently, most of which end up being "false-alarms," they become worse than useless and actually contributes  to an unsafe patient environment because a life-threatening event may be missed due to such sensory overload. In one fascinating research article performed in an intensive care unit (ICU) where the sickest of the sick…

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OSA is a Risk for Sudden Cardiac Death

Mayo Clinic researchers have determined that not only does OSA  (obstructive sleep apnea) lead to increased risk of stroke, cardiac arrest, hypertension, vascular disease, etc but it can also increase the risk of sudden cardiac death, usually due to a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. This conclusion was reached after tracking thousands of men and women with sleep apnea for up to 15 years of whom 142 had sudden cardiac deaths or arrests who were resuscitated. These sudden cardiac arrests occurred …

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Bacteremia IS Present During Tonsillectomy!

@ENTHouse brought to my attention a very interesting research regarding the presence of bacteria in the bloodstream during tonsillectomy , both elective and quinsy. Elective tonsillectomy is when the tonsils are removed in the absence of any significant infection. Quinsy tonsillectomy is when the tonsils are removed in the setting of a peritonsillar abscess . The research involved obtaining blood cultures, tonsillar swabs, core tissue, and pus aspirates during the operation on 80 patient…

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Azithromycin Increases Risk of Death Slightly... Well, So Does Tylenol and Ibuprofen

The media has made much fuss about a NEJM study suggesting a slight increased risk of death from taking azithromycin or z-pack. The more unhealthy you are, the higher the risk... no duh... (I would think the sicker you are, the greater the risk of death PERIOD... a sick person by definition is closer to death than a healthy person). How slight? Compared to amoxicillin, about 47 additional cardiovascular deaths per one million courses of therapy. Never mind the blatant biases found in th…

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