Thursday, 11 July 2013

Syncope!


Hi team!

Today, we discussed syncope, which is defined as an abrupt and transient loss of consciousness, associated with the loss of postural tone. It is an event that is followed by complete and generally rapid recovery. In the majority of cases, it is benign, however; it may be a warning of a more sinister underlying disease process (i.e. a premonitory sign of cardiac arrest!)...

The European Society of Cardiologists has excellent guidelines, including one on Syncope. The tables at the beginning are helpful and I thought it might be a nice reference to have.

Here is the link:


Recall that we reviewed the San Francisco Syncope Rule (SFSR) today. It is a prediction tool, to help risk stratify patients presenting with syncope and determine whether they ought to be admitted. This rule should only be applied to those patients that have no obvious or evident cause for their syncope after their initial evaluation in the emergency department. Note that if your patient has none of the factors associated with the SFSR, this does not preclude a thorough diagnostic work-up! When used in the right clinical context, the SFSR has a negative predictive value of 98% (reference: Saccilotto R, et al. San Francisco Syncope Rule to predict short-term serious outcomes: a systematic review. CMAJ 2011; 183: E1116-E1126)


The SFSR components include CHF, Hematocrit <30%, Abnormal ECG findings/or findings on the monitor (new changes), History of dyspnea (SOB), Systolic BP <90 mm Hg (Memory aid- "CHESS"-CHF, Hct <30%, ECG changes, SOB, SBP<90 mm Hg)

Check out the CMAJ article: “San Francisco Syncope Rule to predict short-term serious outcomes: a systemic review”

Link:

 -Jade



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