Altered LOC
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered - Nelson Mandela
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HWN Recommends
Altered Mental Status: The Forgotten Four
Altered mental status is an all too familiar complaint to emergency physicians. The differential is broad, and includes multiple life threatening diagnoses. We of course think the worst: does the patient have a head bleed or a stroke? Are they septic? Have they ingested some life threatening drug or toxin?
All too often, we get caught up in the rush to get the patient to CT without thinking about a few common, easily diagnosed, and relatively easily fixed problems that require no radiation. It is something we all do from time to time. I have noted four diagnoses that I and my residents occasionally forget to look for, and wind up kicking ourselves over later. Think about these…
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A time-based approach to elderly patients with altered mental status
“AMS” itself can be a misleading and over-general term.
Altered Level of Consciousness: Pathophysiology and Management
There are three major categories of ALOC that should be defined: delirium, dementia, and coma. The main differences between dementia and delirium are etiology and time course of the disease process. Delirium is generally due to more acute, reversible processes, whereas dementias tend to be due to chronic irreversible diseases
Dazed and Confused: The Approach to Altered Mental Status in the ED
We are bad at picking up on delirium. It is important to recognize that delirious patients are much more frequently of a hypoactive subtype2 and appear to be more depressed or catatonic than the more easily noticeable hyperactive subtype.
Level of Consciousness
The abnormal state of consciousness is more difficult to define and characterize, as evidenced by the many terms applied to altered states of consciousness by various observers. Among such terms are: clouding of consciousness, confusional state, delirium, lethargy, obtundation, stupor, dementia, hypersomnia, vegetative state, akinetic mutism, locked-in syndrome, coma, and brain death.
Altered Mental Status: The Forgotten Four
Altered mental status is an all too familiar complaint to emergency physicians. The differential is broad, and includes multiple life threatening diagnoses. We of course think the worst: does the patient have a head bleed or a stroke? Are they septic? Have they ingested some life threatening drug or toxin?
Clerkship Directors in Emergency Medicine
It’s not a facetious question. Diagnosing a patient with a change in mental status can be a daunting challenge in the emergency department.
PedsCases
This episode covers an approach to children with altered level of consciousness. We present an approach to the initial management in these cases, with a focus on the ABC and DFG approach.
ACP Hospitalist
In summary, altered mental status is not a diagnosis but rather a group of variable, nonspecific neurologic symptoms with psychiatric, encephalopathic, and intracranial pathologic causes...
FP Notebook
Mnemonic: AEIOU TIPS
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