Team, how we doing?

Zach here from med geeks.

A big thanks to all you that filled out the survey from last week's

podcast. We really, really do appreciate it.

We've had about 2009 responses thus far in less than a week.

So we're still going to gather the data, but we'll keep you posted on what we're hearing.

What's in the lead, what the responses were, because it only makes us better and I really do appreciate it.

So let's kind of jump right in. Today, we're going to talk about the approach to a patient who presents to the

the hospital with altered mental status.

This is a very common presentation that I see often,

whether I'm in the emergency room, step down, or ICU level of care, and the etymology it could be endless.

But hopefully, after today's podcast, you're going to have an algorithm in your hand to narrow in on that ideology. So during school we learn

numerous acronyms and to be honest I've forgotten many of them. However the one

acronym that I actually use on a daily basis is

A-E-I-O-U tips. Many of you have likely learned this at one point in your career but as a quick

refresher for you this acronym is used for the altered mental status patient and

it stands for A, Alcohol Acidosis E, Electrolytes, I, infection, O, opiates, overdose,

overdose, oxygen, U for uremia in those kidney patients, T for trauma,

aka a blow to the head leading to hemorrhage, temperature, insulin,

P, poison, psychosis, polypharmacy, and then lastly,

S stroke, seizure seizure syncopoe shock

Now you're probably like holy moly like that's a lot to remember but once you

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