Procedurer Compression is the treatment that heals venous leg ulcers; everything else is supportive. But the same compression applied to a limb with arterial insufficiency…

…What usually ruins the examination is not the technique but the handling of the specimen — an aspirate that clots before the smears are made is…

…contamination, not poor suture technique — and the commonest cause of permanent loss of function is a tendon injury that was sutured over without being found…

…serious error is dilating a vessel that turns out to be an artery — everything in the technique is designed to make sure that never happens…

…Sterile saline with a syringe for irrigation. An eye shield (never a pressure dressing when perforation is suspected). A tonometer: an applanation tonometer on the…

…only in claudication, but before every compression treatment of a leg ulcer and as a risk marker in diabetes and known atherosclerotic disease. An ABI…

…not treated away. Incision and drainage is the treatment; antibiotics are normally neither necessary nor sufficient in an uncomplicated cutaneous abscess in an otherwise healthy…

Procedurer CPAP and NIV are two different treatments with different physiology, and the commonest source of error is confusing them. CPAP delivers a constant pressure…

…6. Withdraw the needle, apply compression and a dressing. The knee The patient lies supine with the leg extended and the quadriceps relaxed. The superolateral…

…nitrate. Electrocautery or a heated paper clip for trephination. Antibiotic ointment, a non adherent dressing, gauze. The digital block Anaesthetise from the dorsal aspect, one…

…within the acidic range — ordinary litmus paper that only shows acid or alkaline is not sufficient. A fixation dressing for the nose, a vomit bowl…

…rule that saves time is simple: two attempts or 90 seconds — then go intraosseous. Indications Peripheral venous cannula: Intravenous drug treatment, fluid or blood products…

…is considered when 4–6 weeks of adequate conservative treatment — modification of loading, eccentric exercise, an NSAID, an orthosis — has not given a sufficient effect…