The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine

Date: August 7th, 2021 Dr. Susanne DeMeester Guest Skeptic: Dr. Susanne (Susy) DeMeester is an Emergency Physician practicing at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon. She has been very involved with EMRAP's CorePendium as the cardiovascular section editor and has a chapter coming out soon on women and acute coronary syndrome. Dr. DeMeester was on SGEM#222 as part of the SGEMHOP series. She was the lead author of a study looked at whether an emergency department algorithm for atrial fibrillation management decrease the number of patients admitted to hospital. The SGEM Bottom Line: There are clearly patients with primary atrial fibrillation who can be managed safely as outpatients. There are no evidence-based criteria for identifying high-risk patients who require admission, so for now we will have to rely on clinical judgement. This SGEM Xtra episode is the result of some feedback I received from a listener following SGEM#337 episode on the GRACE-1 guidelines for recurrent low-risk chest pain. The person lamented that it would be nice if a cardiac case scenario was of a female patient. This made me review past SGEM episodes which confirmed there has been a gender bias. While there were a half-dozen episodes that did have female patients, they were the minority. So, I felt a good way to address the issue would be to invite an expert like Dr. DeMeester to discuss this gender bias. There is a difference between gender and sex. Despite having different meanings they are often used interchangeably. Gender refers to social constructs while sex refers to biological attributes. This is not the first SGEM episode that has addressed the gender gap in the house of medicine. I had the honour of presenting at the 2019 FeminEM conference called Female Idea Exchange (FIX19). My FIX19 talk was called from Evidence-Based Medicine to Feminist-Based Medicine. It looked at the three pillars of EBM: relevant scientific literature, clinicians, and patients. I realized that each of the three pillars contained biases against women. In the presentation, multiple references were provided to support the claim that a gender gap does exist. The conclusion from the FIX19 talk was that we should be moving from Evidence-Based Medicine (nerdy and male dominated) to Feminist-Based Medicine (recognizing the inequities in the house of medicine) to Gender-Based Medicine (acknowledging the spectrum of gender and sexuality) and ultimately to Humanist- Based Medicine. The SGEM did a regular critical appraisal of a recent publication with Dr. Ester Choo (SGEM#248). It covered the study published in AEM looking at the continuation of gender disparities among academic emergency physicians (Wiler et al AEM 2019). We also did an entire SGEM Xtra episode with Dr. Michelle Cohen on the broader issue of the gender pay gap (SGEM Xtra: Money, Money, Money It’s A Rich Man’s World – In the House of Medicine). This was based on the Canadian Medical Association Journal article focusing on closing the gender pay gap in Canada (Cohen and Kiren 2020). Five questions about gender disparities when it comes to cardiovascular disease. What is the burden of cardiovascular disease in females and is it the same as males? We know females are often excluded from being subjects in medical research. Are female represented proportionally in cardiovascular disease  clinical research? Are there differences between males and females with regards to cardiovascular disease risk factors? Do females who have a cardiovascular event present differently to the emergency department? Have any sex differences been identified in the treatment and outcomes of females with cardiovascular events? Please listen to the SGEM podcast to hear Dr. DeMeester's answers to these five questions. What can be done to address this gender gap? The Lancet gathered a group of international experts to answer th...

Date: July 29th, 2021 Reference: Azizi et al. Optimal anatomical location for needle decompression for tension pneumothorax: A multicenter prospective cohort study. Injury 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Robert Edmonds is an emergency physician in the Air Force in Ohio.  This is Bob’s 14th episode cohosting the SGEM. DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS OF THIS PODCAST DO NOT REPRESENT THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OR THE US AIR FORCE. Case: You are driving home from a busy shift and see a car collision occur right in front of you.  The driver is a restrained self-extricated male who lost control of his vehicle into a light post and the vehicle’s airbags deployed.  After safely pulling over and having a bystander call 911, you evaluate the patient.  He is speaking in full sentences without confusion, has a strong, rapid pulse, significant pain in his chest and is having a very hard time breathing.  As you wait for EMS to arrive, you quickly dash back to your car to retrieve your stethoscope and an angiocatheter you have in your glovebox.  You notice a marked difference between breath sounds on the left side and decide the patient needs treatment for a tension pneumothorax.  After obtaining consent from the patient, you debate whether to decompress at the second intercostal space in the midclavicular line as you originally learned, or in the fourth/fifth intercostal space midaxillary line as per the current ATLS guidelines. Background: The latest ATLS guidelines were published in 2018. We covered them on the SGEM Xtra with Dr. Neil Parry. There were several changes to the new guidelines but one of them was changing the location for needled decompression for adult patients. Needle thoracostomy is subject to several complications compared to a tube thoracostomy primarily due to the shorter length of the needle as well as the smaller lumen, so site selection has focused on finding a short distance and a site unlikely to kink or get dislodged. Dr. Richard Malthaner We have covered chest tube thorocostomy a couple of times on the SGEM with Dr. Richard (Thoracic) Malthaner. SGEM#129 looked at where to put the chest tube on trauma patients and if a post-procedure chest Xray (CXR) was required. The conclusion from that episode was to put the tube on the correct side, within the triangle of safety, and within the pleural space. Continue to obtain a CXR post chest tube knowing it will probably not change management. Be more concerned if the patient is doing poorly or the tube is not draining. The other episode on chest tubes was SGEM#300. The clinical question was does everyone with a large first-time spontaneous pneumothorax need a chest tube? The answer from that episode was It is reasonable to provide conservative management (no chest tube) in a patient with large first-time spontaneous pneumothoraxes if you can ensure close follow-up. The changes in the ATLS guidelines were based in part on a small study (n=20) utilizing cadavers [1]. There were also studies using CT scans showing a preference for the fourth/fifth ICS AAL [2,3].  These studies were limited by heterogeneity (I2 83%-98%), possible publication bias, and not being randomized trials. These authors are adding to the literature by utilizing ultrasound on live patients. This could reduce some of the potential confounders in prior studies that were exclusively cadavers which may have differences in CWT due to post-mortem changes. The previous studies also focused on homogenous populations like military members and are therefore less generalizable to the general population. Additionally, by using ultrasound instead of CT, some of the confounders from arm placement during CT were reduced.  Clinical Question: Is the chest wall thickness at the second intercostal space in the midclavicular line not thicker than the fourth/fifth intercostal space anterior axillary line? Reference: Azizi et al.

Date: July 24th, 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Brain Goldman is an Emergency Medicine physician who works at Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto. He is the host of CBC radio show White Coat Black Art and the podcast The Dose. He is also the author of the bestselling books The Night Shift, Secret language of Doctors, and the Power of Kindness. This is a SGEM Xtra. Brain and I went on an away mission by shuttle craft to Ticonderoga, NY for the weekend. This was to join Mr. William Shatner to celebrate his 90th birthday. We took the opportunity during part of the road trip to record an SGEM episode about how Star Trek made us better physicians. Some of you may love this episode while others may not. William Shatner 90th Birthday Party Celebration Away Mission 2021 There were a number of challenges that needed to be overcome to make this epic trip happen. First, it was difficult to get VIP tickets to this sold out event hosted by James Cowley. James created the Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour. This is an amazing recreation of the sets from the original series. James is also an executive film producer, actor and famous Elvis impersonator. He graced us with a performance as Elvis as part of the birthday celebration weekend (link to video). After obtaining a couple of VIP tickets to the event, the next concern was: what colour of shirt to wear? There is the gold command tunic worn by Captain James T. Kirk, the blue science/medical tunic worn by Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy, or the infamous red shirt. Please note that the red shirt characters were not statistically more likely die. Another challenge was traveling to the USA. The border restrictions were supposed to have been eased on July 21st to allow crossing by ground. However, it was announced on July 20th that the restrictions would remain in place until August 9th. People were allowed to cross by air if fully vaccinated and had negative COVID19 test within three days of departure. This allowed us to fly over the border, rent a car and drive to Ticonderoga. The final challenge was what to get Mr. Shatner for his 90th birthday. I called the Stratford Festival a few months before the event and asked for their assistance. They kindly searched their archives for the three seasons he was part of the company (1954-1956). There were no pictures that featured him on stage because he was not a famous actor at the time. They did find two photos of Mr. Shatner receiving the Festival’s Guthrie Award from Governor General Vincent Massey in 1956. There were also some newspaper clippings describing how Mr. Christopher Plummer was admitted to hospital for a kidney stone and his understudy, William Shatner, took over the lead role in Henry the V. The Stratford Festival Archivist did find one amazing photo of Mr. Shanter from 1954. It is a picture of him sitting in a chair surrounded by a few other individuals checking out the masks for the 1954 production of Oedipus Rex. It looked like he was getting ready to sit in the captain's chair aboard the USS Enterprise NCC 1701. It's this photo that I had printed, framed and presented to him as a birthday present. He was very gracious and appreciative of receiving this special birthday gift. For those of you not familiar with Star Trek it started with a TV series that had 79 episodes and was broadcasted over three seasons from 1966-1969. It is a science fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) launched many other TV series and movies. This SGEM Xtra will discuss some of the lessons learned from Star Trek and how it has applied to our practice of emergency medicine. Brian and I had a wonderful away mission. Some of the highlights included the private tour of the Enterprise by Mr. Shatner. I had the chutzpah to ask a question of during the bridge chat about what Mr. Shatner learned from his time at the Stratford festival that he applied to his career in TV and movies.

Date: July 14th, 2021 Reference: Pernica et al. Short-Course Antimicrobial Therapy for Pediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia: The SAFER Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2021. Guest Skeptic: Dr. Andrew (Andy) Tagg is an Emergency Physician with a special interest in education and lifelong learning. He is the co-founder of website lead of Don’t Forget the Bubbles (DFTB). When not drinking coffee and reading Batman comics he is playing with his children. Case: Six-year-old Morten comes into your emergency department (ED) with what looks like pneumonia.  He has been febrile with a temp of 39 degrees Celsius, he is mildly tachypneic but shows no real signs of respiratory distress and you can hear some crackles in the right mid-zone.  His chest X-ray (CXR) confirms your findings, but he is well enough to be treated as an outpatient. Background: It is hard to believe we have not covered the common condition of pediatric community acquired pneumonia (CAP) on the SGEM. Perhaps it is because there is limited evidence on this common condition. However, we have covered other pediatric infectious issues like: Honey for Cough SGEM#26 Fever Fear SGEM#95 Lumbar Punctures SGEM#296 Bronchiolitis SGEM#228 Invasive Bacterial Infection SGEM#334 We do have high-quality evidence that a CXR is not necessary to confirm the diagnosis of CAP in patients who are well enough to be managed as outpatients. There is also high-quality evidence that pre-school children do not routinely need antibiotics. This is because most  pneumonias in this age-group are caused by viral pathogens (Bradley et al 2011). Antibiotics are recommended for school age children diagnosed with CAP. However, how long should they be treated is an open question. The IDSA guidelines provide a strong recommendations based on moderate quality of evidence to guide our care. (Bradley et al 2011). Treatment courses of 10 days have been best studied, although shorter courses may be just as effective, particularly for more mild disease managed on an outpatient basis. (strong recommendation; moderate-quality evidence) There is an RCT reporting five days of amoxicillin (80mg/kg divided TID) was non-inferior to ten days for CAP in children six months to 59 months of age (Greenberg et al 2014). This was a relatively small study (n=115) from Israel. A short course (five days) has also been recommended by the American Thoracic Society and the IDSA for adults with CAP under certain conditions (Metlay et al 2019). We recommend that the duration of antibiotic therapy should be guided by a validated measure of clinical stability (resolution of vital sign abnormalities [heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and temperature], ability to eat, and normal mentation), and antibiotic therapy should be continued until the patient achieves stability and for no less than a total of 5 days (strong recommendation, moderate quality of evidence). Clinical Question: Is a five day course of antibiotic therapy non-inferior to a ten day course to achieve clinical cure for paediatric community-acquired pneumonia? Reference: Pernica et al. Short-Course Antimicrobial Therapy for Pediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia: The SAFER Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2021 Population: Children aged six months to ten years of age diagnosed with community acquired pneumonia (CAP) who are well enough to be treated as an outpatient. CAP was defined as fever (rectal, oral or axillary in 48 hours before presentation), tachypnea (based on age, accessory muscle use or auscultation findings), CXR, or primary diagnosis by the ED physician. Exclusions: Empyema or necrotizing pneumonia, preexisting pulmonary disease, congenital heart disease, history of aspiration, malignant neoplasm, immunodeficiency, kidney disfunction, on beta-lactam antibiotics for >24hrs at presentation,

Date: July 1st, 2021 Guest Skeptic #1: Dr. Chris Carpenter is Professor of Emergency Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and a member of their Emergency Medicine Research Core. He is a member of the SAEM Board of Directors and the former Chair of the SAEM EBM Interest Group and ACEP Geriatric Section. He is Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Academic Emergency Medicine. He is also Associate Editor of Annals of Internal Medicine’s ACP Journal Club and the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and he serves on the American College of Emergency Physician’s (ACEP) Clinical Policy Committee. Dr. Carpenter also wrote the book on diagnostic testing and clinical decision rules. Reference: Musey et al. Guidelines for reasonable and appropriate care in the emergency department (GRACE): Recurrent, low-risk chest pain in the emergency department. AEM July 2021 This is an extra special SGEM. It is a combo of an SGEM Xtra and an SGEMHOP. The Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) has decided to publish its own clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). They are called Guidelines for Reasonable and Appropriate Care in the Emergency Department (GRACE). This episode will review the GRACE-1 guideline looking at low-risk recurrent chest pain. Because this is a new initiative by SAEM, I interviewed Dr. Chris Carpenter about these new GRACE guidelines. Dr. Chris Carpenter Listen to the SGEM podcast to hear him answer five background questions about these new CPGs. Who came up with the idea of doing CPGs? Why do we need more guidelines? Walk us through the GRACE process? Why pick recurrent, low-risk chest pain to be the first CPG? What do you hope to achieve with these CPGs Guest Skeptic #2: Dr. Suneel Upadhye is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine & Clinical Epidemiology at McMaster University. He is a founding member of the Best Evidence in Emergency Medicine (BEEM) program. Suneel is also the inaugural Research Lead for the EM Researchers of Niagara, which is a novel community-based EM research group within Niagara region, Canada. He is also a Guidelines Methodologist within CAEP and the SAEM GRACE groups. Case: You are seeing a patient who has returned to the emergency department (ED) with recurrent chest pain. It is their fourth visit in the last twelve months.  He has had his chest pain for approximately three to four hours now and is not classic for ischemic symptomatology.  His initial high-sensitivity (hs) troponin is negative, and his ECG is unremarkable.  In reviewing his records, you note that he has undergone significant cardiac testing in the recent past, which was unremarkable. This included a normal exercise stress test and CCTA 18 months ago.  You also note that he has an underlying anxiety disorder, which is being treated and followed by his family physician.   Background: This new SAEM GRACE initiative is committed to using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system, GRADE was pioneered at McMaster University, in creating rigorous, transparent, and trustworthy guidelines on common clinical problems for emergency medicine (EM) physicians that are not always directly studied in EM research activities. The steering group/panelists explored many different potential questions, and voted on the top eight, that were then reviewed in systematic fashion; evidence was rated using GRADE methods, and then final recommendations were made using the GRADE Evidence-to-Decision framework (Upadhye et al CJEM 2021 and Courtney and Lang AEM 2021).  The Methods team sought initial GRADE training, then shared that learned expertise with the question groups, many of whom were relative novices in guideline methodology. After two years, a comprehensive document is being published that answers the key diagnostic dilemmas in recurrent chest pain patients who have had recent normal cardiac investigations,

Date: July 1st, 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Justin Morgenstern is an emergency physician and the creator of the #FOAMed project called First10EM.com. Reference: Dankiewicz et al: TTM2 Trial Investigators. Hypothermia versus Normothermia after Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. NEJM 2021 Case: A 58-year-old man collapsed in front of his family. When paramedics arrived, they found him to be in cardiac arrest, with ventricular fibrillation on the monitor. Paramedics managed to get return of spontaneous circulation after a single defibrillation, but the patient is still comatose on arrival. The charge nurse turns to you and asks: should I grab the ice packs? Background: Hypothermia has been a mainstay of post-arrest care after the publication of two trials in 2002 that both suggested a benefit. This trial by Bernard and colleagues randomized 77 patients with an initial cardiac rhythm of ventricular fibrillation who had achieved return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) but were persistently comatose. The trial was not truly randomized, as the groups were based on the day of the month, and they also weren’t blinded. The results of this Australian trial seemed too good to be true. Hypothermia resulted in a large improvement in neurologic outcomes, defined as well enough to be sent home or to a rehab facility. It was 49% of the hypothermia group versus only 26% of the normothermia group. This gives a NNT of 4. The reported p value was borderline at 0.046, and when I re-calculate, it comes out as 0.06 (not statistically significant). The other trial was the Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest (HACA), also published in NEJM 2002. They randomized 273 comatose adult patients out of 3,551 screened patients. These were witnessed OHCA who had a shockable rhythm, achieved ROSC, and had a short downtime. This trial used an air mattress to cool patients and was also not blinded. This second trial done in Europe also showed impressive results for favorable neurologic outcome. It was 55% in the hypothermia group vs 39% in the normothermia group (NNT 6). They also reported a 14% absolute decrease in mortality with therapeutic hypothermia post-OHCA. As a result of these two-small trials, hypothermia was widely adopted. However, there were many voices in the evidence-based medicine world that reminded us of the significant uncertainty that remained, and the weaknesses of these two trials. The SGEM covered a few  trials looking at therapeutic hypothermia for OCHA in the pre-hospital setting. The bottom line is there is not good evidence that therapeutic hypothermia is superior to usual care and cannot be recommended. SGEM#21: Ice, Ice, Baby (Hypothermia post Cardiac Arrest) SGEM#54: Baby It’s Cold Outside (Pre-Hospital Therapeutic Hypothermia in Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest) SGEM#183: Don’t RINSE, Don’t Repeat Because of that uncertainty, a much larger, multi-center trial was run. This is the original Target Temperature Management (TTM) trial by Nielson et al NEJM 2013. As almost everyone knows, they compared two difference hypothermia targets, 33C and 36C. The result was no benefit for their primary outcome of mortality at the end of the trial and no benefit Cerebral Performance Category (CPC), modified Rankin Score (mRS) or mortality at 180 days. We did a structured critical appraisal of the TTM trial on SGEM#82. The bottom line was that the trial did not demonstrate a benefit of a targeted temperature of 33C vs. 36C for survival of OHCAs. But both groups in the TTM trial were hypothermic, so although it was the highest quality evidence available, it didn’t tell us whether hypothermia was any better than normothermia. Which is why the TTM2 trial was performed. Clinical Question: Does hypothermia result in improved survival after cardiac arrest as compared to controlled normothermia? Reference: Dankiewicz et al: TTM2 Trial Investigators. Hypothermia versus Normothermia after Out-of-Hospital Car...

Date: June 25th, 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Chris Bond is an emergency medicine physician and assistant Professor at the University of Calgary. He is also an avid FOAM supporter/producer through various online outlets including TheSGEM. Reference: Chinnock et al. Self-obtained vaginal swabs are not inferior to provider-performed endocervical sampling for emergency department diagnosis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis. AEM June 2021 Case: A 31-year-old female presents to the emergency department with pelvic pain and vaginal discharge for the past 24 hours. She is afebrile, vital signs are normal and she is having a significant amount of pain. She says the pain is so severe that she cannot even imagine having a pelvic exam done right now for STI testing. Background: Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) are the two most common sexually transmitted infections (STI) reported in the United States. Emergency departments (EDs) now diagnose an increasing percentage of NG/CT cases compared to STI clinics. (1,2) The standard of care for NG/CT diagnosis is nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT), with the collection method being provider-performed endocervical sampling (PPES). PPES is uncomfortable for patients and has numerous other limitations, including the need for exam rooms, an available provider and often a female chaperone. These limitations can delay sample collection and can also add significant delay in a busy ED. The need for universal pelvic examination in the ED to perform STI testing has also come under increasing scrutiny. (3) Vaginal sample collection with self-obtained vaginal swabs (SOVS) was first developed and researched in non-ED settings based on these reasons and others. These studies demonstrated comparable sensitivity for NG/CT diagnosis when comparing SOVS to PPES, and high patient acceptability. (4-8) However, those studies were performed in a wide range of non-ED settings and were mostly asymptomatic screening rather than STI testing in an acute care environment. This study compares PPES with SOVS in an ED setting and explores patient’s acceptability or preference of SOVS versus PPES. Clinical Question: Do self-obtained swabs have noninferior sensitivity for the diagnosis of NG/CT compared to provider performed swabs in an ED setting using a rapid NAAT. Reference: Chinnock et al. Self-obtained vaginal swabs are not inferior to provider-performed endocervical sampling for emergency department diagnosis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis. AEM June 2021 Population: Female patients 18 years of age or older who were judged by the treating practitioner to need NG/CT testing Exclusions: Incarcerated any acute psychiatric condition precluded understanding instructions or giving informed consent, not English or Spanish proficient, or treated for NG/CT within the previous four weeks. Intervention: Self-obtained vaginal swab (SOVS) for NG/CT Comparison: Provider performed endocervical sampling swab for NG/CT Outcome: Primary Outcome: Noninferiority of SOVS sensitivity for NG/CT, with noninferiority being demonstrated if sensitivity was 90% or above. Secondary Outcomes: Kappa measurement of the SOVS and PPES, SOVS organism-specific sensitivity for NG and CT, acceptance rate of SOVS, rate of patients worried about doing SOVS correctly, and SOVS refusal rate. Dr. Brian Chinnock This is an SGEMHOP episode which means we have the lead author on the show. Dr Brian Chinnock is Professor in Department of Emergency Medicine at the UCSF-Fresno Medical Education Program, and Research Director. Authors’ Conclusions: “SOVS are noninferior to PPES in NG/CT diagnosis using a rapid NAAT in ED patients and surveys indicate high patient acceptability.” Quality Checklist for Observational Trials: Did the study address a clearly focused issue? Yes Did the authors use an appropriate method to an...

Date: June 11th, 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Dennis Ren is a paediatric emergency medicine fellow at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. Reference: McLaren SH, et al. Invasive bacterial infections in afebrile infants diagnosed with acute otitis media. Pediatrics 2021 Case: You are working with a medical student at the emergency department when a 2-month-old boy is brought in by his parents for fussiness. They note that he has had upper respiratory symptoms for the past few days and fussier than usual. He has still continued to feed well and make wet diapers. He has not had any fever. Yesterday, they noticed that he seemed to be pulling at his right ear. On exam, he is afebrile, active, and alert. He cries and moves vigorously when you look into his ear. You see a bulging, red tympanic membrane. His left tympanic membrane is clear. The rest of his exam is unremarkable. You turn to the medical student and ask her what she would like to do for this patient. She replies that she thinks the patient has an acute otitis media (AOM) but given his age, she is also thinking about the possibility of an invasive bacterial infection (IBI) and would like to obtain some blood for labs and even consider a lumbar puncture for cerebral spinal fluid. How do you reply? Background: Acute Otitis media is the second most diagnosed illness in children and the most common indication for antibiotic prescription [1-2]. We have covered the of AOM twice on the SGEM: SGEM#132: One Balloon for Otitis Media with Effusion with Dr. Richard Lubell SGEM#278: Seen Your Video for Acute Otitis Media Discharge Instructions SGEMHOP with lead author Dr. Naveen Poonai? In 2013, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated recommendations for the diagnosis and management of acute otitis media (AOM) for children older than 6 months. Unfortunately, there is limited guidance for patients younger than 6 months. The diagnosis of AOM becomes more complicated by the concern for concurrent invasive bacterial infections (IBI) in infants less than 3 months of age. Previous studies have demonstrated low prevalence of concurrent IBI in infants with AOM, but sample size has been small and included a mix of afebrile and febrile infants [3-4]. Additionally, the microbiology of pathogens causing AOM has shifted after the implementation of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine with a higher proportion of patients having culture negative AOM [5]. This uncertainty has led to wide practice variation and controversy surrounding diagnostic testing (blood and cerebrospinal fluid testing), antibiotic administration (IV vs oral), and disposition (discharge vs admission) in infants with AOM. Clinical Question: What is the prevalence of invasive bacterial infections and adverse events in afebrile infants ≤ 90 days of age with acute otitis media? Reference: McLaren SH, et al. Invasive bacterial infections in afebrile infants diagnosed with acute otitis media. Pediatrics 2021 Population: Afebrile infants ≤ 90 days of age with clinically diagnosed acute otitis media across 33 pediatric emergency departments (29 USA, 2 Canadian and 2 Spanish EDs) from 2007 to 2017 Excluded: Temperature ≥38°C and <36°C in the ED or within 48 hours, antibiotic use (other than topical) within 48 hours of presentation, concurrent mastoiditis, evidence of focal bacterial infection, transferred to ED with previous diagnostic testing/antibiotics Intervention: Evaluation of invasive bacterial infections in blood or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Comparison: None Outcomes: Primary Outcome: Prevalence of IBI (bacterial meningitis and bacteremia) Secondary Outcomes: Variability in diagnostic testing for IBIincluding blood or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), parenteral antibiotic administration, and hospitalization. Safety Outcome: AOM-associated adverse events Authors’ Conclusions: “Afebrile infants with clinician-diagnosed acute otitis ...

Date: May 25th, 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Garreth Debiegun is an emergency physician at Maine Medical Center in Portland, ME and clinical assistant professor with Tufts University School of Medicine. He also works at an urgent care and a rural critical access hospital. Garreth is interested in wilderness medicine and is the co-director of the wilderness medicine clerkship at Maine Med, and the medical director for Saddleback Ski Patrol and for Maine Region NSP. At work Garreth imagines himself as a student of evidence-based medicine trying to provide the best care based on the best evidence. References: Suzuki et al. Effect of Mechanical Thrombectomy Without vs With Intravenous Thrombolysis on Functional Outcome Among Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke: The SKIP Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2021 Zi et al. Effect of Endovascular Treatment Alone vs Intravenous Alteplase Plus Endovascular Treatment on Functional Independence in Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke: The DEVT Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2021 Case: A 74-year-old woman presents to your emergency department with 1.5 hours of right-sided weakness, aphasia, and neglect. On rapid bedside assessment you calculate the National Institute of Health Stroke Score/Scale (NIHSS) of 11 and a Field Assessment for Stroke Triage for Emergency Destination (FAST-ED) score of 7; you suspect a large vessel occlusion (LVO) based on the high NIHSS and FAST-ED score >3. A non-contrast CT shows no evidence of intracranial hemorrhage. A CT angiogram plus CT perfusion demonstrate a clot in the left proximal middle cerebral artery (MCA) with a small infarcted area and a large penumbra. Based on your institution’s current guidelines, the patient is a candidate for endovascular therapy, but they are also within the current window for the administration of thrombolytics. You wonder if you gotta be starting something?  Specifically, you wonder if you should give the thrombolytics while waiting for your neurointerventional/endovascular team? Background: Management of acute ischemic stroke has been discussed on the SGEM ever since this knowledge translation project was launched in 2012. My position remains that there is uncertainty as to whether tPA provides a patient-oriented outcome and this was summarized in the downgrading of the NNT recommendation to “yellow” with Dr. Justin Morgenstern from First10EM. The world of stroke management has changed in the last few years the more robust evidence to support endovascular therapy (EVT) for large vessel occlusion (LVO) strokes. The tipping point came with the publication of MR. CLEAN in 2015. It was a multicenter, randomized, unblinded trial of patients with an LVO stroke in the anterior circulation treated in less than six hours after onset of symptoms. The primary outcome was good neurologic function defined as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 0-2 at 90 days. The trial included 500 patients and reported an absolute risk reduction of 14% (33% EVT vs 19% control) with a NNT of 7. Four other RCTs were stopped early due to the publication of MR. CLEAN.  All of these were published in the NEJM in the following six months. SWIFT PRIME (n=196) NNT of 4 EXTEND-IA (n=70) NNT of 2-5 depending on which outcome you picked REVASCAT (n=206) extended the window to eight hours NNT 6.5 ESCAPE (n=316) extended to 12 hours NNT 4 There are dangers with stopping trials early. Dr. Gordon Guyatt wrote in the BMJ that it can introduce bias towards efficacy. He said you should have a high level of skepticism regarding the findings of trials stopped early for benefit, particularly when those trials are relatively small, and replication is limited or absent. A systematic review and meta-analysis (SRMA) was published by Badhiwala, JH et al in JAMA 2015 looking at EVT for stroke. The first three RCTs reported no superiority. Then came MR. CLEAN and those four additional studies that were stopped early.

Date: May 28th, 2021 Guest Skeptics: Heather Logan is the executive Strategy lead for the Canadian Agency for Drug and Technologies in Health (CADTH). Dr. Wendy Levinson is the Chair of Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC) and a Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto This SGEM Xtra is based on document created by CADTH and presented at Choosing Wisely Canada National annual meeting May 13, 2021. The title of the report is Using Health Care Resources Wisely After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Recommendations to Reduce Low-Value Care. We have discussed Choosing Wisely before on SGEM Episodes: SGEM#15: Choosing Wisely SGEM Xtra: CAEP Choosing Wisely SGEM Xtra: Right, You’re Bloody Well Right, You’ve got the Bloody Right to Care Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC): Dr. Wendy Levinson It is the national voice for reducing unnecessary tests and treatments in health care. One of its important functions is to help clinicians and patients engage in conversations that lead to smart and effective care choices. Choosing Wisely Canada is led by a team of clinicians and staff based at St. Michael’s Hospital (Toronto), the University of Toronto, and in collaboration with the Canadian Medical Association. Choosing Wisely Canada mobilizes and supports clinicians and organizations committed to embedding campaign recommendations into practice. There are close to 350 documented quality improvement projects across the country that are building capacity for the spread and scale of Choosing Wisely. These efforts are underway in hospitals, long-term care homes, and primary care clinics. Many of these innovative projects, including their evidence-based tools and methods, have been packaged into easy to follow toolkits that are broadly circulated in order to encourage widespread adoption. This has allowed Choosing Wisely Canada to foster a network for those looking to implement campaign recommendations into practice. Canadian Agency for Drug and Technologies in Health (CADTH): Heather Logan It is an independent, not-for-profit agency funded by Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial governments (except Quebec) to provide credible, impartial advice and evidence-based information about the effectiveness of drugs and other health technologies to Canadian health care decision-makers. CADTH believes that credible, objective evidence should inform every important health care decision. When you want to know what the evidence says, ask CADTH. Created in 1989 by Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial governments, CADTH was born from the idea that Canada needs a coordinated approach to assessing health technologies. The result was an organization that harnesses Canadian expertise from every region and produces evidence-informed solutions that benefit patients in jurisdictions across the country. South Huron Hospital Association (SHHA) is known as the "Little Hospital that Does". SHHA has been choosing wisely since 2012 selecting five items every three years. SHHA Choosing Wisely 2012 Influenza shots for staff with privileges SGEM#20 Use Ottawa ankle and knee rules SGEM#3 and SGEM#5 No routine use of antivirals for Bell’s Palsy SGEM#14 No routine use of antibiotics for simple cutaneous abscesses SGEM#13 No routine use of proton pump inhibitors for upper GI bleeds SGEM#16 SHHA Choosing Wisely 2015 Utilize Canadian CT head rules to guide our decisions on getting CT heads SGEM#106 Utilize Canadian C-Spine rules to guide our decisions on obtaining plain film c-spine imaging SGEM#232 Do not do annual physical exams on asymptomatic adults with no significant risk factors Do not screen women with Pap smears if under 21 years of age or over 69 years of age Do not order echo cardiograms routinely SHHA Choosing Wisely 2018 Only use supplemental Oxygen for STEMI patients that are hypoxic (saturations < 90%) SGEM#...