Podcast #15 Analgesia Case Discussion Follow Up and a Word on Emerging PTSD Research
Just snow your patient with ketamine and versed to prevent PTSD right? Maybe not. While talking through some more analgesia and sedation strategies, Doc Powell shares his thoughts on what he has read recently and it might blow your mind. It did mine and
I’ll definitely have to dig in and do more research of my own. We also go through some of the answers to our survey we put out on our last post. For the most part we did pretty good as a whole. There were, however, some dangerous answers such as using propofol or benzodiazepines for pain control, and we will discuss why that’s not necessarily such a great idea.
Here is the flowsheet and the scenario we will discussed in the show:
Click her for a blank PFC Card
We had been running an assistance mission for about 5 months. After months of little action, we started to get complacent. During one of our area recons on the outskirts of our AO, we decided to split the two vehicles up. Our vehicle would go straight through a small village and the other would go around to the north and would link back up with us couple of miles west of the village. Under cover of afternoon we decided to roll through and see what we could see. We knew that we didn’t really blend in with the locals , but we figured “Speed is security” and we would be gone by the time anyone really realized who we were.
As we drove through the village, I got the feeling that something wasn’t right. Suddenly a soccer ball rolled into the road. John slowed the truck and I looked over just in time to see a local level his rifle and fire from the hip at us from the alleyway. In the time it took me to scream “DRIVE”, bullets began hitting the truck. I raised my weapon and took well aimed shots at (sprayed) the alley as the driver stepped on the gas and blew through the rest of the village. As we cleared the village, I noticed that there was blood splattered on myself, and Steve began yelling that he had been hit. I yelled at John to radio the other team as I began treating Steve. I found that he had taken a round through the thigh with heavy bleeding. A tourniquet high on the leg thankfully was enough to stop the bleeding, but I knew it was going to be a long, 30-45 min, very bumpy ride back to the safe house.
When we linked back up with the other team, I did my secondary assessment (no airway involvement or other injuries) and began tracking vitals and started thinking about analgesia. Traveling light, I was only carrying a bare bones kit for med supplies including two vials of ketamine and Tylenol for analgesia. I went with intranasal ketamine 50mg every 20 min as needed. Steve’s blood pressure remained over 110mmHg systolic, so I didn’t bother with the IV until we got back to the safehouse. This knocked his pain down to a tolerable level 3/10, but every rut and bump on this road was followed by an audible moan. I needed to get back to my clinic.
As we all drove into the compound, I was thinking about the 9-line and MIST report to get Steve out of here quick, but as I looked back from where we came, I saw a very ominous sign, a giant brown cloud engulf the horizon….A sand storm…
In my narc box I had:
20 Tabs Percocet (Oxycodone/tylenol)
3 – 5ml vials ketamine 100mg/ml
3 x 2ml vials fentanyl 100mcg/ml
2 x 1ml vials mg hydromorphone 2mg/ml
2 x 1ml carpuject vials morphine 10mg/ml
2 x 1ml carpuject vials naloxone .4mg/ml
1 x 5ml vial Versed 5mg/ml
1 x 5ml vial romazicon 5mg/ml
2 x 20ml vials propofol 10mg/ml
3 x 1ml ampule ephedrine 50mg/ml
I also had:
3 x 1ml ampule epinephrine 1/1000
2 x 1ml Carpuject vials of diphenhydramine 50mg/ml
20 tabs of 4mg Zofran
2 x 1ml ampule Phenergan 50mg/1ml
2 x 50ml vials 2% Lidocaine w/ epi
1 bottle of 100 tabs 325mg Tylenol
Stimuplex + needles
Ultrasound machine and gel
Take the Discussion Survey Again:
Here are some of our previous posts on the topic:
SOMSA 2016 Ketamine and Pharmacology Lab
Scott Weingart from EMCrit on PFC and Ketamine
Part 3 of the Pharm Series… Ketamine and PFC
Part 2 of the Pharm Series… The MSMAID Acronym From Anesthesia Adapted to Prolonged Field Care
Part 1 of the Pharm Series… 12 Principles of Pharmacology