Spinal Cord Injury Management

July , 2008/in Musculoskeletal, Patient Assessment, Spine/by WMN Editors

July/August 2008 ISSN-1059-6518 Volume 21 Number 4

SPINAL CORD INJURY MANAGEMENT

Pre-hospital personnel are trained to treat all possible spinal cord injuries based primarily on the Mechanism of Injury (MOI), as well as signs and symptoms.

It is equally important in the wild environment for rescue personnel and responders not only to be able to recognize a possible back injury based on MOI, but to be able to rule it out (to “clear the spine”) by a taking a proper history and performing a physical exam. Clearing the spine allows the patient to get up, walk out, and avoid an unnecessary litter evacuation.

Diabetes

May , 2008/in Diabetes/by WMN Editors

This is the story about what powers the engine of life. In order to survive from second-to-second, minute-to-minute, and carry out the daily activities of life, you have to have energy, and you have to be able to extract that energy from the world around you. For most of life (with the exception of the creatures that live in the deep oceans next to the thermal vents) that energy ultimately comes from the sun, and that is where the story begins.

ISSN-1059-6518

Yellow Fever

May , 2008/in Yellow Fever/by WMN Editors

May/June 2008 ISSN-1059-6518 Volume 21 Number 3

By Frank Hubbell, DO

Yellow fever is an acute hemorrhagic viral illness caused by the yellow fever arbovirus of the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. It occurs in many African, Central and South American countries, and several Caribbean Islands. There is an effective vaccine. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are about 200,000 cases per year with about 30,000 deaths, with the highest proportion in sub-Saharan Africa. The name refers to the yellow color of the conjunctiva and skin that occurs from the liver jaundice that affects many patients.

Fever

May , 2008/in Fever/by WMN Editors

May/June 2008 ISSN-1059-6518 Volume 21 Number 3

Temperature’s Rising: FEVER

You are five days into the wilderness on a 14-day trek across the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia. Early that morning, one of your fellow trekkers comes over to your tent to let you know that she felt feverish most of the previous night. Throughout the night, she felt hot, sweaty, and at times, she had chills.