It’s over, and having fun in Vegas trumped blogging. So, now that we’re home safe and sound, here’s some other things I learned / reinforced while there:

• we’re state-of-the-art with our procedural sedation where I work. Good news.
• for crashing patients, get the sono to the bedside, and think about dissection as a cause early
• trendelenberg position doesn’t improve BP, and should be abandoned unless trying to start a central line
• shock for fib, then do CPR without checking for ROSC for 2 minutes (big change)
• GERD flare-ups and cardiac ischemia are often linked! (Weird but true)
• soon, the 64 detector CT will do away with diagnostic caths (but not yet)
• morphine is not helpful for decompensated CHF (dCHF); no appreciable venodilation
• morphine is, however, a significant risk factor for needing to intubate in dCHF (5x)
• BiPap and Cpap are equivalent for dCHF, and getting them started early is the key
• Brugada syndrome is more prevalent than previously thought: look for it in your syncopal patients
• add colchicine to aspirin for your pericarditis patients
• things to avoid in pericarditis: indocin and steroids

A fun time was had by all, and it was a good, if sparsely-attended conference with very good speakers.

Now to start incorporating this into my practice…