Hello, students. My name is Mike Estefan, and I thank you for downloading this month's

episode of the EM Clerkship Podcast. This month's episode is going to be covering botulism, but before we

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consultation appointment today. If you do, don't forget to mention EM Clerkship, and now,

back to the episode. Today's episode is going to be covering botulism.

We're going to start by discussing what botulism actually is and the different subtypes of botulism.

Next, we're going to move on to discuss the relevant history and physical exam findings, followed by

diagnosis and treatment.

So botulism is a neurological disease caused by production or exposure to the botulinum neurotoxin, which is produced by the bacteria, Clostridium botulinum.

This compound inhibits acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction, and it results in a characteristic descending paralysis.

There are a few different subtypes of botulism, which we'll go through right now.

Number one, food-borne botulism.

This is caused by exposure to preformed neurotoxin found in foods, and it's usually home-canned

foods that weren't canned properly.

...