Outline of emergency medicine
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to emergency medicine:
Emergency medicine – medical specialty involving care for undifferentiated, unscheduled patients with acute illnesses or injuries that require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency physicians undertake acute investigations and interventions to resuscitate and stabilize patients. Emergency physicians generally practice in hospital emergency departments, pre-hospital settings via emergency medical services, and intensive care units.
Medical emergencies
Presentations
Further information: Symptom
- Abdominal pain
- Altered level of consciousness
- Back pain
- Chest pain
- Coma
- Confusion
- Constipation
- Cyanosis
- Diarrhea
- Dizziness
- Dyspnea
- Fever
- Gastrointestinal bleeding
- Headache
- Hemoptysis
- Jaundice
- Nausea and vomiting
- Pelvic pain
- Seizure
- Sore throat
- Syncope
- Testicular pain
- Vaginal bleeding
- Vertigo
- Weakness
Types of emergencies
Listed below are conditions that constitute a possible medical emergency and may require immediate first aid, emergency room care, surgery, or care by a physician or nurse. Not all medical emergencies are life-threatening; some conditions require medical attention in order to prevent significant and long-lasting effects on physical or mental health.
Cardiac and circulatory
Further information: Cardiology and circulatory system
- Acute coronary syndrome
- Air embolism (arterial)
- Aortic aneurysm (ruptured)
- Aortic dissection
- Bleeding
- Cardiac arrest
- Cardiac arrhythmia
- Cardiac tamponade
- Deep vein thrombosis
- Heart block
- Heart failure
- Hypertensive emergency
- Infectious endocarditis
- Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
- Myocarditis
- Pericarditis
- Peripheral vascular disease
- Pulmonary embolism
- Valvular heart disease
Dermatologic
Further information: Dermatology
Endocrinological
Further information: Endocrine system and Endocrinology
Environmental
Further information: Environmental medicine
- Accidental hypothermia
- Drowning
- Electrical and lightning injuries
- Frostbite
- Heat illness
- Radiation injuries
- Scuba diving hazards and dysbarism
Gastrointestinal
Further information: Human gastrointestinal tract
Genitourinary
Further information: Genitourinary system
Infections
Further information: Infection
- Bacterial meningitis
- Cholera
- Ear infection (can occur with sudden sensorineural hearing loss)
- Gas gangrene
- Lyme disease infection
- Malaria infection
- Necrotizing fasciitis
- Neutropenic sepsis
- Rabies infection
- Salmonella poisoning
Inflammatory
Further information: Inflammation
Hematologic
Further information: Hematology
Infectious disease
Injury (trauma) and illness
- Abdominal trauma
- Acute epistaxis
- Appendicitis (leading to peritonitis)
- Ballistic trauma (gunshot wound)
- Bite
- Bone fracture
- Burn
- Crohn's disease, severe (possible obstruction, perforation)
- Chest trauma
- Child abuse
- Domestic abuse
- Facial trauma
- Flail chest
- Foreign body
- Fulminant colitis
- Head injury
- Hyperthermia (heat stroke or sunstroke)
- Hypothermia or frostbite
- Intestinal obstruction
- Pancreatitis
- Peritonitis
- Poisoning
- Polytrauma
- Ruptured spleen
- Septic arthritis
- Septicaemia blood infection
- Severe burn (including scalding and chemical burns)
- Sexual assault
- Spinal disc herniation
- Spinal injury
- Spreading wound infection
- Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (which may become permanent unless treated promptly)
- Suspected spinal injury
- Traumatic brain injury
- Wound
Metabolic
Further information: Metabolism
- Acute renal failure
- Addisonian crisis (seen in those with Addison's disease)
- Dehydration, advanced
- Diabetic coma
- Electrolyte disturbance, severe (along with dehydration, possible with severe diarrhea or vomiting, chronic laxative abuse, and severe burns)
- Hepatic encephalopathy
- Hypercalcemic crisis
- Lactic acidosis
- Malnutrition and starvation (as in extreme anorexia and bulimia)
- Pheochromocytoma crisis
- Thyroid storm
Neurological and neurosurgical
Further information: Neurology and neurosurgery
- Acute spinal cord compression
- Cerebrovascular accident (stroke)
- Convulsion or seizure, no history or unusual
- Delirium
- Dementia
- Meningitis
- Neuroleptic malignant syndrome
- Seizures
- Serotonin syndrome
- Status epilepticus
- Status migrainosus
- Stroke
- Subarachnoid hemorrhage
- Subdural hematoma, acute
Obstetric
Further information: Obstetrics
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Eclampsia
- Fetal distress
- Obstetrical hemorrhage
- Placental abruption
- Prolapsed cord
- Puerperal sepsis
- Shoulder dystocia
- Uterine rupture
- pulmonary hypertension
Ophthalmological
Further information: Ophthalmology
- Acute angle-closure glaucoma
- Giant-cell arteritis
- Orbital perforation or penetration
- Retinal detachment
Pediatric
Further information: Pediatrics
Psychiatric
Further information: Psychiatry
- Anxiety, acute
- Attempted suicide, non-fatal
- Excited delirium
- Factitious disorder
- Homicidal ideation
- Malingering
- Mood disorder
- Psychomotor agitation
- Psychotic episode
- Somatoform disorder
- Suicidal ideation
- Thought disorder
Respiratory
Further information: Respiratory system
- Agonal breathing
- Asphyxia
- Asthma, acute
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Epiglottitis or severe croup
- Pleurisy
- Pneumonia
- Pneumothorax
- Pulmonary embolism
- Respiratory failure
- Upper respiratory infection
Shock
- Anaphylaxis
- Cardiogenic shock
- Hypovolemic shock (due to hemorrhage)
- Neurogenic shock
- Obstructive shock (e.g., massive pulmonary embolism or cardiac tamponade)
- Septic shock
Toxicological
Further information: Toxicology
Urological, andrological, and gynecologic
- Acute prostatitis
- Gynecologic hemorrhage
- Ovarian torsion
- Paraphimosis
- Priapism
- Sexual assault (rape)
- Testicular torsion
- Urinary retention
Emergency medical care
Critical care
- Acute Care of at-Risk Newborns (ACoRN)
- Airway management
- Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient (CCrISP)
- Mechanical ventilation
- Shock
- Resuscitation
Life support
Environmental medicine
Toxicology
- Anticholinergics
- Antidepressants
- Cardiovascular drugs
- Caustics
- Sympathomimetics and cocaine
- Toxic alcohols
- Hallucinogens
- Heavy metals
- Hydrocarbons
- Inhaled toxins
- Lithium
- Antipsychotics
- Opioids
- Pesticides
- Plants, mushrooms, herbal medications
- Sedative hypnotics
Branches of emergency medicine
- Emergency medical services
- Emergency nursing
- Emergency psychiatry
- International emergency medicine
- Pediatric emergency medicine
- Pre-hospital emergency medicine
Contributory fields
Emergency medicine is multidiciplinary – due to the diversity of medical emergencies encountered, emergency medicine relies heavily upon the knowledge and procedures of many medical specialties, including:
- Critical care medicine
- Disaster medicine
- Hospice care
- Hyperbaric medicine
- Pain management
- Palliative care
- Sports medicine
- Ultrasound
- Wilderness medicine
Emergency medical system
Emergency medical services
Emergency medical facilities
Emergency medical professionals
Tools and equipment
Emergency medical equipment
- Bag valve mask (BVM)
- Chest tube
- Defibrillation (AED
- ICD)
- Electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG)
- Intraosseous infusion (IO)
- Intravenous therapy (IV)
- Tracheal intubation
- Laryngeal tube
- Combitube
- Nasopharyngeal airway (NPA)
- Oropharyngeal airway (OPA)
- Pocket mask
Drugs
History of emergency medicine
Publications
- Critical Care Medicine
- Intensive Care Medicine
- Military Medicine
- Shock
- Trauma
- Academic Emergency Medicine
- American Journal of Emergency Medicine
- Annals of Emergency Medicine
- Annals of Intensive Care
- Critical Care Clinics
- Emergency Medicine Australasia
- Emergency Medicine Journal
- Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine
- Injury Prevention
- Journal of Critical Care
- Journal of Emergencies, Trauma, and Shock
- Journal of Emergency Nursing
- Journal of Injury and Violence Research
- Journal of Intensive Care Medicine
- Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
- Prehospital Emergency Care
- The Journal of Emergency Medicine
Organizations
- American Board of Emergency Medicine
- American College of Emergency Physicians
- American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine
- Asian Society for Emergency Medicine
- Australasian College for Emergency Medicine
- British Association for Immediate Care
- Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians
- Emergency Nurses Association
- European Resuscitation Council
- European Society of Emergency Medicine
- International Federation for Emergency Medicine
- International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation
- Resuscitation Council
- Royal College of Emergency Medicine
Persons influential in emergency medicine
- Dominique Jean Larrey
- Peter Safar – Austrian physician of Czech descent, credited with pioneering cardiopulmonary resuscitation
See also
- Outline of medicine
- Alcohol abuse
- Substance abuse
- Pain management
- Procedural sedation
- Evidence-based medicine
- End-of-life care
- Disaster preparedness
- Emergency ultrasound
- NACA score
- Injury prevention
References
Marx, John (2010). Rosen's emergency medicine: concepts and clinical practice 7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Mosby/Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-323-05472-0.
External links
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