EM Fundamentals

APPROACH TO SYNCOPE

Goals and Objectives Goals Resident will be comfortable with initial evaluation and basic management of patients with syncope Learning Objectives Resident will be able to list life-threatening causes of syncope Arrhythmia Structural Heart Disease Anemia / Blood Loss Pulmonary Embolism Ectopic Pregnancy Resident will be able to name high-risk groups in patients with syncope Elderly Coronary artery disease Structural heart disease Abnormal ECG Family history of sudden death Resident will be able to describe high-risk ECG findings in patients with syncope Ischemia Tachy- and brady-arrhythmias Wolff-Parkinson-White Brugada Syndrome Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Long QT Pericardial Effusion

Recommended Resources Prior to Conference Evaluation of Syncope in the ED (Am J Clin Med 2010) Approach to Syncope (EM in 5) ECG in Syncope (Mel Herbert) Additional Resources Review Syncope (NEJM 2000) Management of Syncope (ALiEM) ECG in the Patient with Syncope (Am J Emerg Med 2007) ECG in the Patient with Syncope (Am J Clin Med 2012) ECG in Syncope ECG Syncope Case Set 1 (Amal Mattu) ECG Syncope Case Set 2 (Amal Mattu) Consensus Statements ACEP Clinical Policy: Syncope AHA/ACCF on Syncope (pdf)

Original Post by Eric Shappell on 12/03/2014
Reviewed by James Ahn on 01/06/2015
Last Updated by Eric Shappell on 05/10/2016 Contact / Feedback