who taps possible septic joints in ure er? you or ortho?

[Painter1]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

as a resident, ortho would get consulted for possible septic joints and they would perform the tap. on occasion, for our own learning as residents, we would tap a knee here and there.

as an attending at an er without er residents, i call ortho and usually a p.a. comes and taps the joint.

what's your practice?

would you tap a wrist, ankle? is there a standard of care as to who should tap the joint?

i had a case of a possible septic wrist, and unfortunately plastics was covering hand and the plastics fellow would not want to come in and and wanted me to tap the wrist. what would u guys have done?

 

[Arcan57]

Shoulder, elbow, knee -yes. Ankle and wrist - usually no. 1st MTP - never

 

[Hawkeye Kid]

Same as Arcan, but I'll do wrists and ankles. Never tapped a toe and don't really want to. I'm at an academic center and usually try to let my residents do as many procedures as possible (as long as I know how to do them).

 

[WilcoWorld]

I have the same practice as Hawkeye kid, with the caveats that if there's hardware involved I let ortho tap, and I don't tap hips.

 

[kungfufishing]

I do them other than hips. I've done a couple first MTP but the return is so tiny and it is hard enough to do that I probably won't do it again.

 

[Hawkeye Kid]

I have the same practice as Hawkeye kid, with the caveats that if there's hardware involved I let ortho tap, and I don't tap hips.

Agreed...I let ortho deal with hardware-containing folks, too. Good point.