Exam Tips
Muscle Relaxants for the MRCEM Exam
Neuromuscular blocking drugs used in anaesthesia are also known as muscle relaxants. By specific blockade of the neuromuscular junction, they enable light anaesthesia to be used with adequate relaxation of the muscles of the abdomen and diaphragm. They also relax the...
The Importance of a Good Night’s Sleep
“There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.” Homer, The Odyssey Pulling an ‘all-nighter’ On several occasions over the years, I have decided to ‘pull an all-nighter’ and stay up to study for an exam the following day. On some occasions, it...
The Descending Tracts
The descending tracts are pathways whereby motor signals travel from the brain to the lower motor neurons to innervate muscles and cause movement. There are no synapses in the descending pathways. All of the neurons in the descending tracts are upper motor neurons,...
The Ascending Tracts
The ascending tracts are neural pathways located in the white matter that conduct afferent information from the peripheral nerves to the cerebral cortex. There are usually three neurons in an ascending pathway: First-order neurons, in which the cell body is in the...
Overview of the Cranial Nerves
There are twelve paired cranial nerves in total, and they all arise directly from the brain, in contrast to the spinal nerves, which arise from segments of the spinal cord. The cranial nerves are accordingly numbered by the location within the brainstem (superior to...
Understanding Vivas
“The spoken word was the first technology by which man was able to let go of his environment in order to grasp it in a new way.” Marshall McLuhan The dreaded viva voce The viva voce, or oral exam, has declined in popularity over recent years but is still a part of...
Understanding Medical Acronyms and Abbreviations
“brb, ttyl ok? Wow, I saved a ‘ton’ of time with those acronyms.” – Stephen Colbert Acronyms are abbreviations formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These are usually presented are individual letters. These acronyms are very commonplace in...
Le Fort Fractures
Le Fort fractures are complex fractures of the midface, involving the maxillary bone and surrounding structures in either a horizontal, pyramidal or transverse direction. The hallmark of these fractures is traumatic pterygomaxillary separation. They account for...
Recognising Myocardial Infarction Patterns on the ECG
Being able to rapidly identify an acute myocardial infarction (MI) pattern on the ECG is a vitally important skill for clinicians, particularly those that work front line in the Emergency Department. MI causes permanent damage to heart muscle and any delay in...
Major Incident Management Part 2 – At the Hospital
In Part 1 of our review of major incident management, we focused on management at the disaster scene. In Part 2, we will focus on how hospitals respond to the declaration of a major incident and manage the potentially large number of casualties that can arrive in the...
