The five most difficult areas of the Emergency Medicine Board Review are usually going to be the five areas that you spent the least time reviewing, reviewed in the most distant period, or that that you just never quite understood. If there is an area with which you have always had trouble, your success in this area is not going to improve unless you have put the time in to alleviate the difficulty. As you study the emergency medicine board review textbook , take advantage of the fact that some material just follows you from the beginning to the end of your medical career. Add these questions from your problem areas to the top of your list, and hit one or two questions in this region every day. Though we are discussing what we have called the most difficult areas below, the most difficult area is really a customized entity for each individual.
1).Opthalmological disorders and emergencies are at the top of the “difficult” lists of many.
Many don’t see or treat a lot of subacute opthalmologic disorders , though this content has a firm place on the boards. Know the symptoms, opthalmological exam, and method of treating the following: retinal artery occlusion, papilloedema, corneal ulceration (pseudomonas being the most common causative organism), hypopyon, pterygium, retinal detachment (review the way it looks on ultrasound (US)) and the normal parameters of intraoccular pressure (nl IOP = 10-21). Don’t ignore the IOP associations with open and closed angle glaucoma.
2).Don’t forget the spinal cord injuries.
Thankfully, this is another example of a time-honored area of which we do not see a lot in clinical practice. As a result, one often remembers to look over the spinal cord lesions and the corresponding anatomical area, but forgets to review the mechanisms of injury. For instance, the hangman’s fracture is the result of a hyperextension injury, not a flexion injury. Make a chart and memorize whether associated symptomatology is anterolateral or contralateral for anterior cord, central cord, and Brown Sequard syndromes.
Read More: http://www.boardvitals.com/blog/five-difficult-areas-emergency-medicine-boards/
1).Opthalmological disorders and emergencies are at the top of the “difficult” lists of many.
Many don’t see or treat a lot of subacute opthalmologic disorders , though this content has a firm place on the boards. Know the symptoms, opthalmological exam, and method of treating the following: retinal artery occlusion, papilloedema, corneal ulceration (pseudomonas being the most common causative organism), hypopyon, pterygium, retinal detachment (review the way it looks on ultrasound (US)) and the normal parameters of intraoccular pressure (nl IOP = 10-21). Don’t ignore the IOP associations with open and closed angle glaucoma.
2).Don’t forget the spinal cord injuries.
Thankfully, this is another example of a time-honored area of which we do not see a lot in clinical practice. As a result, one often remembers to look over the spinal cord lesions and the corresponding anatomical area, but forgets to review the mechanisms of injury. For instance, the hangman’s fracture is the result of a hyperextension injury, not a flexion injury. Make a chart and memorize whether associated symptomatology is anterolateral or contralateral for anterior cord, central cord, and Brown Sequard syndromes.
Read More: http://www.boardvitals.com/blog/five-difficult-areas-emergency-medicine-boards/
