[Emergency medicine] Introduction

Emergency physicians specialise in diseases which must be treated immediately.
There is significant overlap with traumatology. 
Some patients who present to the emergency department require critical care and get transferred to the intensive care unit.

 

Etymology

Latin ēmergēns, ēmergentis = emerging
Latin medicīna, medicīnae = medicine, remedy, cure

 

Common presentations:

• Acute abdomen
• Chest pain  
• Dyspnoea  
• Suicide attempt

 

Diseases:

• Acute coronary syndrome
• Myocardial infarction 
• Costochondritis
• Acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Acute urinary retention
• Urinary tract infection
• Ventricular fibrillation  
• Acute severe asthma   
• Delirium 
• Ethanol poisoning
• Major trauma
• Polytrauma
• Anaphylactic shock
• Meningitis 
• Rectal foreign body