CCPEM Podcast Episodes

Nearly 200,000 patients are admitted to the hospital each year in the United States for acute asthma exacerbations.  Approximately 2% of patients are intubated and placed on mechanical ventilation. In-hospital mortality is nearly 100 times higher when a patient with acute asthma exacerbation is intubated.  Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation is well known to improve outcomes for patients with an acute COPD exacerbation or with acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema. In contrast, the data on NIPPV for acute asthma is limited and remains debated. In this podcast, we discuss the latest study on the use of NIPPV in acute exacerbations of asthma.

Accurate assessment of intravascular volume is critical in managing sick patients in the emergency department or intensive care unit.   In this podcast we discuss a recently published article that evaluates clinical exam, radiographic, point-of-care ultrasound, and laboratory findings in the assessment of intravascular volume overload.

Each year, hundreds of articles are published that pertain to the resuscitation and care of critically ill emergency department patients. In this podcast, we review the key articles from the 2025 emergency medicine, resuscitation, and critical care literature that pertain to the care of critically ill ED patients.

More than 600,000 patients in North America sustain sudden cardiac arrest each year.  When return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is achieved, there are a number of critical interventions to consider in order to provide the patient with the best chance of being discharged with meaningful neurologic survival.  In this podcast, we discuss an excellent recent review article on the management of patients with ROSC following cardiac arrest.

Emergency physicians intubate critically ill patients daily.  Unfortunately, up to 17% of ED intubations can be complicated by peri-intubation hypoxemia, hypotension, and cardiac arrest. Efforts to optimize patient’s physiology prior to rapid sequence intubation are critical in mitigating the risk of potentially disastrous peri-intubation complications.  In this podcast, we discuss a recent Clinical Policy from the American College of Emergency Physicians that addresses critical issues in the management of adult ED patients undergoing endotracheal intubation.  

Oxygen is one of the most used, and misused, therapies delivered to critically ill patients.  In recent years, a number of trials have compared the use of a conservative oxygen therapy strategy with a liberal oxygen therapy strategy.  These trials have produced mixed results and the optimal oxygen strategy for critically ill patients remains unknown.  In this podcast, we discuss the latest study, UK-ROX Trial, to investigate a conservative oxygen therapy strategy with usual oxygen therapy in critically ill ICU patients.  Which approach is better?

Critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilation require analgesia and sedation.  At present, propofol remains the most widely used sedative for intubated/ventilated patients.  Recent trials have suggested that dexmedetomidine may reduce delirium and the duration of mechanical ventilation compared with other sedative medications.  In fact, recent SCCM guidelines suggest the use of dexmedetomidine over propofol in intubated patients.  In this podcast, we discuss a recent randomized trial that compared the effectiveness and safety of a dexmedetomidine-based sedation strategy with a propofol-based sedation strategy in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients.

Approximately 75% of patients older than 65 years of age are seen in an ED within 6 months of their death.  While palliative care teams are now present in many hospitals in the US, they are often not present 24/7 or in resource-limited settings.  As such, there may be an opportunity to improve palliative care in the ED by providing palliative care education to ED team members.  In this podcast, we review the recently published PRIM-ER trial, which evaluated the impact of a robust primary palliative care intervention on hospital admission rates in 29 EDs across the US.

Sepsis results in more than 250,000 deaths each year in the United States. Resuscitation of the septic patient centers on timely recognition, early antibiotic administration, appropriate fluid administration, source control, and vasopressor administration for those with inadequate mean arterial pressures. At present, norepinephrine is the recommended first-line vasopressor for sepsis.  Current guidelines then recommend vasopressin as the second-line vasopressor agent, but the optimal timing of its initiation remains unknown. In this podcast, we discuss a recent article on the use of a machine learning tool for vasopressin administration to optimize short- and long-term outcomes in patients with sepsis.

Nearly 4 million patients sustain out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) worldwide each year.  International guidelines for the resuscitation of patients with OHCA recommend early administration of epinephrine in those with an initial nonshockable rhythm.  Both intravenous (IV) and intraosseous (IO) access are routinely attempted to gain vascular access to administer medications.  While IV access is recommended, this is based on very low certainty evidence.  In this podcast, we discuss three recently published randomized trials that investigated IO and IV access in patients with OHCA.