Monday, February 16, 2015

Cauda equina syndrome

This is a diagnosis you want to make early. Here's a very helpful review.

A post at Academic Life in Emergency Medicine, which cites the review, has a lot of pearls. It notes this regarding the medicolegal risk:

About 84% of the plaintiff verdicts involved a situation where the patient experienced permanent bowel or bladder dysfunction. Plaintiffs were more likely to win in cases when deficits developed after presentation, specifically when CES was initially missed. When patients present with incontinence, the plaintiff only won 16% of the cases [2].

Hence the importance of carefully documenting the patient's findings on initial presentation.

No comments: