Public healthcare institutions (PHIs) in Singapore have a range of policies and guidelines for the management of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED)...

The problem of overcrowding, of which access block is one of the main causes, continues to plague emergency departments (EDs) worldwide.1 Some of its...

Fatal road accidents are by no means uncommon in Singapore, a modern tropical metropolis with a population of approximately 3 million. Statistics provided by...

The study of poisoning has been relatively neglected in Singapore. A check through the Infogate database of the National University of Singapore Library revealed...

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is widely practised for cardiopulmonary arrests with variable success. The initial intention was to defibrillate patients with ventricular fibrillation after acute...

Singapore employs more than 350,000 foreign workers currently. With this influx of foreign workers into our city-state which has limited land and resources, it...

Drowning is defined as suffocation from submersion in a liquid with death within the first twenty-four hours. Near-drowning implies that recovery has occurred, at...

The above is a textbook of medicine written by Singapore doctors and published in Singapore. It is difficult not to be over-enthusiastic about it...

Of the approximately 15,000 deaths that occur in Singapore every year, about 25% are from cardiac causes; of which, some 30% to 40% occur...

Total parenteral nutrition (TPN) may contribute to good outcome in selected groups of patients. Parenteral nutrition is highly effective in reversing effects attributable to...

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) refers to a continuum of clinical entities ranging from unstable angina pectoris (UAP) to Q-wave myocardial infarction. Mortality rates from...

Pulmonary thromboembolism (PE) has historically been considered a rarity in the Asian population. Although well studied in the West, Asian literature on this condition...

It is projected that elderly persons will make up 18.4% of Singapore’s population by the year 2030. Currently, there are 5189 residents staying in...

Increasing life expectancy and ageing of the “post-war baby boomer” generation have led to the rapidly ageing demographic of many Asian countries. Singapore’s elderly...

Dear Editor, The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted medical education1,2 and distressed clinicians.3,4 Understanding the impact of this pandemic on emergency medicine (EM) residents’ experience of...

Singapore has a resident population of 3.26 million and 0.53 million foreign workers. Of these half a million foreigners, 450,000 are work permit holders,...

Paracetamol overdose is one of the most common drug overdose in both children and adults in Singapore. Doses of paracetamol exceeding 150 mg/kg in...

Earthquakes and tsunamis can cause massive destruction over large areas, affecting the lives of many in areas hit by such disasters. The local health...

Haemolysis of blood samples leads to inaccurate results and often necessitates a repeat sample. Escalating workloads and finite resources are an increasing problem in...

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has been shown to be superior to thrombolytic therapy in terms...

Thromboembolism is a well-known complication of mitral stenosis especially when it is associated with cardiac dysrhythmias. However, renal artery embolism is a disease that...

Renal infarction is a rare disease. Domanovits et al reported an incidence rate of 0.007% (17/248,842) during a study period of 45 months. This article...

We thank the authors for their interest in our study and their insightful comments. We agree that filling pressures such as the central venous...

We would like to thank Dr Huck Chin Chew et al for sharing their findings and we are appreciative of their work, “Oesophageal Doppler...

Snakes are present even in an industrialised country like Singapore. A bite from a venomous snake can inflict much morbidity and occasionally, it can...

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a substantial public health burden that has poor prognosis. Patients who receive “good” and “high-quality” cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) have...

Exercise-related cardiac arrest is uncommon, however it is devastating when it occurs in otherwise healthy adults. In young adults, vigorous physical exercise trigger cardiac...

Our tertiary hospital has a 9-bed Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) that caters to all surgical disciplines except Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery (which has...

It was an unusually busy ward round. The newly promoted registrar was keen to review the patients handed over to him. But there were...

Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion (ACCF) are performed for decompression of the spine when the primary compressive...

It has been 4.5 years since the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME-I) accredited competency-based emergency medicine residency programmes were started in July...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a global public health issue with adverse short- and long-term repercussions. Formal definitions of CSA and the age for...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has impacted healthcare systems worldwide. Globally, visits to the emergency department have fallen as much as 25% during...

Singapore employs a large foreign worker (FW) population, defined as non-Singapore citizens and non-permanent residents working locally. Holders of “work permit” (WP), the work...

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, with a global incidence of 62 cases per 100,000 person-years. In addition, there...

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a leading cause of mortality and a significant public health problem globally. In Singapore, OHCA affected 11,061 adults between...

Splenic artery aneurysms (SAAs) are uncommon and often asymptomatic. However, ruptured SAAs can be rapidly fatal. We reviewed the literature on SAAs and highlighted...

Emergency airways often present with little warning, and the need for airway management is necessary for a successful resuscitation. This is in contrast to...

Health-seeking behaviour varies during a pandemic. Early reports have suggested reduced attendances at emergency departments (EDs), especially in paediatric patients and in patients with...

Emergency airway management is a keystone of emergency medicine practice and critical skill in residency training. An accredited emergency attending is expected to handle...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, with over 110 million cumulative cases...

Head injuries are common childhood injuries that present to paediatric emergency departments. Falls are the most common cause in young children, while contact sports...