Category Archives: Articles From Our Experts

Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury (ACLI) is most often a result of low-velocity, noncontact, deceleration injuries and contact injuries with a rotational component. Contact sports also may produce injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) secondary to twisting, valgus stress, or hyperextension all directly related to contact or collision. The importance of the ACL has been […]

By: AMFS Expert and Board Certified Radiologist Your patient has shortness of breath. The ER physician suspects a pulmonary embolism, and orders a CT angiogram of the chest. An hour later the Tele-Radiology report calls it negative. The patient goes home and tragically passes away from a pulmonary embolus. Review of the images the next […]

SHORTAGES OF PHARMACEUTICALS BRING NEW MEDICAL RISKS By AMFS Expert #E03151 Physician – Emergency Medicine The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) issued a joint release in June 2010 concerning shortages of pre-filled epinephrine syringes and the potential for serious and potentially fatal dosing errors.  A look […]

By:  AMFS Hospital Medicine Expert Over the past two decades, there has been a growing trend for the care of the hospitalized patient to be assumed by physicians who care only for patients in the inpatient setting, and who do not have an outpatient medical practice. These physicians have come to be known as “hospitalists”, […]

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was first described in 1967 by Ashbaugh, who described a syndrome of severe respiratory failure associated with pulmonary infiltrates, similar to infant hyaline membrane disease. The 1994 American-European Consensus Committee defines ARDS as the acute onset of bilateral infiltrates on chest radiography, a partial pressure of arterial oxygen (PaO2) to […]

Apnea is defined as the absence of airflow at the nose and mouth for longer than 10 seconds. Sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) is described as the occurrence of more than 30 apnea episodes over a seven-hour period of nocturnal sleep. The majority of sleep apnea cases are obstructive as opposed to central. The upper airway […]

By:  AMFS Cardiology Physician #E19616 Congestive heart failure can be simply described as the inability of the heart to meet the metabolic demands of the body.  The heart functions as a pump to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the tissues.  Failure of the pump to deliver nutrition to the tissues stimulates a number of compensatory […]

By: AMFS Physician Advisory Panel Numerous patients unexpectedly suffer sudden respiratory arrest with catastrophic results in the immediate aftermath of surgery. (1,2) Most are elderly and recently treated with sedatives and narcotics. The problem has inspired the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation to convene a meeting of experts to discuss the cause and find solutions. These […]

By:  AMFS Infectious Disease Expert Dealing with Infectious Disease Infectious diseases are among the most common conditions for which patients seek medical care, and potentially the most serious. Fortunately, since the discovery of penicillin over 70 years ago, antibiotics have made the treatment of serious infections highly successful. Nevertheless, physicians and advanced practioners such as […]

Over the next decade, the field of Gynecology will be faced with a relentless number of claims associated with complications related to synthetic mesh and robotic surgery. There is a common trend between these two areas. Even though in the hands of trained physicians both are safe and effective, the overzealous marketing of these techniques […]