General Internal Medicine

Critical Care

Questions discussed in this category

How do you approach caring for patients admitted with decompensated CHF, but who also exhibit hypotension and do not have overt signs of hypervolemia on exam?

For example, do you consider "cautious" IV fluids or otherwise consider early vasopressors?

4 Answers available

Under what circumstances do you recommend POCUS guidance for lumbar puncture?

2 Answers available

When do you recommend starting a continuous opioid infusion for symptom control at the end of life?

1 Answer available

What do you think about using conventional thoracic imaging methods (e.g., X-ray, CT, etc.) to determine if a pleural effusion is of adequate size to consider thoracentesis?

3 Answers available

What is your preferred laboratory test to assess treatment response or infection resolution in patients with bacterial pneumonia?

For example, do you find trending WBC, procalcitonin, CRP, etc., more or less helpful?

1 Answer available

How do you recommend incorporating B-lines on lung POCUS as part of evaluating a patient's volume status?

In particular, how do you reconcile situations where lung POCUS findings contradict other components of volume assessment (e.g. JVD, peripheral edema,...

1 Answer available

Do you recommend treating Candida albicans on urine culture from an indwelling catheter in a patient with septic shock?

3 Answers available

For patients with suspected complement-mediated TMA, are there specific clinical or laboratory parameters that can help guide the decision for starting empirical treatment (e.g., eculizumab) while awaiting the results of complement testing?

1 Answer available

Is there a role for repeat surveillance blood cultures in patients with prosthetic valve endocarditis without associated cardiac abscess after a 6 week course of antibiotic treatment without surgical intervention?

1 Answer available

Do you use FVIII levels to differentiate between DIC and coagulopathy of liver disease?

Common thought is that FVIII may be used for differentiating coagulopathy in liver disease (normal to increased, from reduced clearance of VWF/FVIII) ...

4 Answers available