Kotahitanga 6

Another great read from Kotahitanga. Recurrent cellulitis is common cause of repeat admissions to our ward, especially in our fluid overloaded heart failure patients. Thanks S.Beck for the article! Compression therapy reduced incidence of cellulitis recurrence in patients with chronic oedema compared to conservative. 40% recurrence in control group...

Syncope? Think outside the box.

Syncope is a transient and abrupt loss of consciousness with complete return to preexisting neurologic function. It can be classified as neurally mediated (mostly young adults), cardiac, orthostatic, or neurologic. This case of syncope comes from Faseeh Zaidi, a 5th year medical student studying at the University of Auckland 72-year-old female...

Regional-rural programme at the University of Auckland

In 2008 The university of Auckland introduced Pūkawakawa. A year 5 regional immersion programme based in Northland NZ.  Early outcomes show that postgraduates who participated in the program are very likely to be working in rural and regional areas with an intention to work in general practice and rural medicine....

Kotahitanga-5

This months issue of Kotahitanga got the rural community talking. Retrieval and transport delays are an important consideration in patients presenting with stroke and clot retrieval requires transfer outside our own DHB. Inter hospital transfer for CT head for minor head injuries in anti-coagulated patients is routine occurance with...

CRUSH 3 Gallbladder

Acute Cholecystitis is a common complications of gallstone disease, and a frequent cause of right upper quadrant pain in patients presenting to the emergency department. ED PoCUS has been shown to be similarly accurate to radiology performed ultrasound when the following sonographic features are present. Presence of gallstones plus one...

Pathways and Pipelines; the road to Rural Generalism

At this years NZRHN Rural Hospital Summit in Wellington, I was fortunate to hear Dr Kati Blattner speak. Amongst other achievements she is a clinician and academic instrumental in making vocational training for rural remote generalist doctors what it is today. Undertaking the Rural Hospital Training Programme in parallel to...

Diabetes management

As part of Otago Universities ‘Leaning on Fence Post’ series hosted by the fabulous Matilda Hamilton, Dr Alex Mcleod and Sharon Sandilansd give us an update on all things Diabetes. The series is also available wherever you get your podcasts....

Kotahitanga 4

We love this months Kotahitanga! No more sniffing geriatric urine, a little more digital adrenaline and a little less gabapentin for back pain. Thanks Kotahitanga....

The agitated patient

Here in Taupo we are fortunate to have regular educational simulations run by our resident ED specialist Dr Jared Bayless. Thanks to Dr Jeremy Webber and Andrew Tattle for workshopping how the agitated patient is cared for in the ED. In an aggressive conflict situation, the best advice is...