The Edge is a new monthly column from FlightBridgeED that will feature top providers sharing current trends in critical care and prehospital medicine. In this installment FlightBridgeED chief medical director Jeff Jarvis, MD, looks at cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.
You get a call to a private residence for a 28-year-old male with abdominal pain. You are led to the living room of a well-kept home and find your patient lying in a fetal position on the couch, rocking back and forth, moaning in pain.
Seeing no hazards, you make contact with him. Your general impression is that he is uncomfortable but seems to be breathing well without tachypnea or use of accessory muscles. You’re able to feel a bounding, regular radial pulse at a rate of about 110. His skin is wet, as is his hair.