Department Blog

Zachary Dezman, MD, MS, MS, was a guest on today's morning news broadcast from Fox45, discussing the surprising results of a study designed to identify drugs used by ED patients being treated for overdose. You can watch the full segment here:

https://foxbaltimore.com/morning/synthetic-drug-testing

Marijuana was the individual drug most commonly detected. Only one sample tested positive for a synthetic cannabinoid. The results suggest that street drugs are being packaged in new combinations not detected by standard ED tests. The investigators also found that the drugs patients claimed to have taken (and the drugs the physicians assumed they had taken) often did not match the metabolites detected by the analysis.

The study and its findings are more fully described at this site:

https://ndews.umd.edu/resources/drug-early-warning-re-testing-biological-samples-maryland-hospital-study

Jenny Guyther, MD, and Rich Lichenstein, MD, are the lead authors of the article titled "Association of Influenza Outbreaks with Advanced Pediatric Medical Support," published in the August issue of Epidemiology & Infection (2018;146:1366-71). Their study documented increased hospitalizations and ICU admissions as well as the use of mechanical ventilation during influenza outbreaks by children with medically attended acute respiratory illness.

Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, PhD, participated in a research collaboration between Duke University Medical Center and Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Moshi, Tanzania. The purpose of the NIH-funded study was to assess attitudes and practices among emergency care providers in Tanzania regarding the use of interventions for their alcohol-abusing patients. The findings will be applied to the design of educational programs for medical personnel and strategies to reduce alcohol consumption among people who seek emergency medical care. Observations from this study are published in the September issue of the journal Alcohol.

T. Andrew Windsor, MD, published the case report titled "An 18-Year-Old Prisoner with Abdominal Pain" in the June issue of Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine. His co-author is Anna Darby, MD, MPH, an emergency medicine resident at Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center. Their article was published in the engaging format of the journal's section for Clinicopathological Cases from the University of Maryland, in which a resident describes a patient's presentation and then an attending presents his or her thought process for the assessment and diagnosis.

http://intra.umms.org/midtown/news/2018/08/mary-lamon-story

Megan Kirk, MD, Leen Ablaihed, MBBS, MHA, Zachary Dezman, MD, MS, MS, and Laura Bontempo, MD, MEd, published the case report titled “65-Year-Old Female With Cardiac Arrest and Return of Spontaneous Circulation” in the July issue of Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine.

Siamak Moayedi, MD, Michael Witting, MD, MS, Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, PhD, and Stephen Schenkel, MD, MPP, published the article titled “Prospective, Randomized Controlled Comparison of a Flash-Tip Catheter and a Traditional Intravenous Catheter in an Urban Emergency Department” in the July issue of The Journal of Vascular Access. They were joined in their study by Nicholas George, BS*,* and Alise Burke, BS, who are students at the University of Maryland School of Medicine as well as co-authors of the article.

Sarah Dubbs, MD, served as a guest editor for this month's issue of Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America, on the topic of hematologic and oncologic emergencies. Dr. Dubbs wrote two of the articles (“The Latest Cancer Agents and Their Complications” and “Rapid Fire: Tumor Lysis Syndrome”) and co-authored two more with Akilesh Honasoge, MD, MA (“Rapid Fire: Central Nervous System Emergencies” and “Rapid Fire: Pericardial Effusion and Tamponade”). Amal Mattu, MD, continues as the consulting editor for this journal and, in that role, wrote the preface for this issue.

Siamak Moayedi, MD, and Michael Witting, MD, MS, published the article titled “No Radiographic Safe Margin Found in the ‘Easy IJ’ Internal Jugular Vein Procedure” in the July issue of The Journal of Emergency Medicine (2018;55:29?33). The lead author is Ryan McCarter, MD, who was a student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine at the time of their study and is now an internal medicine resident at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, North Carolina. Based on their observations, the investigators recommend assessment for pneumothorax with chest radiography or ultrasound following the Easy IJ procedure.

Dan Gingold, MD, MPH, and Doug Sward, MD, published the article titled “The Effect of Wilderness and Medical Training on Injury and Altitude Preparedness Among Backcountry Hikers in Rocky Mountain National Park,” in the World Journal of Emergency Medicine (2018;9:172-177). Medical students Michael Yue and David Spivey assisted them with data collection and analysis. Their survey of 380 hikers in 4 areas of the park showed that medically trained hikers were more likely to be prepared for altitude, medical emergencies, and trauma than their non-trained counterparts. Wilderness-trained hikers were more prepared for altitude sickness. These relationships likely reflect hikers’ awareness of hazards in the wilderness and the steps that can be taken to avoid them.