Departments

Over the years I have accepted humor as a coping mechanism for physicians. Humor has helped me to relieve tension, defuse tense situations, counteract grim aspects of medicine, and alleviate pain.

A student physician assistant sustained blunt trauma to her right ear, hit hard in the head in the emergency department while treating a college football player who had gotten quite drunk after his school's homecoming game. The resultant drone gave the author an opportunity for an improbable diagnosis.

"I don't know exactly how to tell you my problem, Doc. I'm not old enough to have difficulty like this. And I'll tell you this much, there's no way I could discuss it with your nurse....

Two patients present with similar cutaneous growths—one a series of ulcerative lesions on the lower leg, and the other a painless forearm lesion.

Two boys present with similar hair loss—one developed only months earlier, the other had been present since birth.

Two patients with enlarging lesions—one in a man with no history of skin cancer, and the other in a man with significant actinic damage.

A 24-year-old woman presented with a six-year history of a recurring, somewhat painful and pruritic palmar rash that developed on either hand within minutes of exposure to water.

One month after starting a new chemotherapeutic drug, the patient sought treatment for painful peeling and redness on her hands and feet.

Five months of treatment with corticosteroids and antibiotics did not relieve the scaly plaques on a man's scalp, cheeks, trunk, genitals, and legs.

An 83-year-old male with an osteoporotic compression fracture of the second lumbar vertebra (L2), sustained in a fall, complained of continuing pain despite conservative treatment for the past 3 weeks.

Myoclonic seizures began following surgery to repair a cerebrospinal fluid leak in a 73-year-old woman.

Symptoms were worse when she tried to sleep, but there was no associated dizziness, vertigo, or otalgia.

Victoza (liraglutide) is a once-daily injection to treat type 2 diabetes in adults. Victoza is intended to help lower blood sugar levels along with diet, exercise, and selected other diabetes medicines. It is not recommended as initial therapy in patients who have not achieved adequate diabetes control on diet and exercise alone.

Ustekinumab (Stelara) is given by subcutaneous injection and targets the body's immune system by inhibiting the action of IL-12 and IL-23, two proteins that may be involved in plaque psoriasis.

An IV calcium channel blocker to reduce BP from The Medicines Company

Revised last year, substantive changes include additional recommendations for psychotherapy as well as several additional medications.

In the future, more and more children with cardiac risk factors, such as obesity and diabetes, will be treated in the primary-care setting.

Start with antisecretory drugs, i.e., proton-pump inhibitors, then make medication, dosage, and lifestyle changes to suit the individual patient.

When a middle-aged woman presents with joint pain, a rheumatologist encounters a series of challenges that land him in court.

A GP finds himself the defendant in wrongful death suit, when he allows the patient to delay a follow-up visit.

After referring his patient to a dermatologist to have a mole looked at, the clinician considered the case resolved. Not so fast.

Annual percentage increase in new diagnoses of malignant melanoma from 1992 to 2004.

Percentage of people diagnosed with asthma who don't have the disease.

Strep throat symptoms may include fever (often >101°F), chills, myalgias, headache, nausea, and vomiting.

Fatalities are rare, but bites are most dangerous to young children, the elderly, and those in poor physical condition.

The most recent evidence on the management of influenza