This is EM cases, EM Quick Hits podcast, where our team of experts and educators bring

a clear, concise, and condensed, practice-changing knowledge on all those EM topics you

may not be totally comfortable with.

Cases, the latest evidence, procedural tips and tricks, pitfalls to avoid, and the key take-home

points and references on the EM cases website.

Quick, let's get on with it.

EM cases is part of Shremi, the Schwartz-Riseman Emergency Medicine Institute.

That's the nonprofit organization dedicated to improving EM care through high quality research and education. The opinions expressed on this podcast are intended for general information and educational purposes only and should not be used to diagnose treat or prevent any medical condition, nor should they be used as a substitute for medical advice from a qualified practicing physician. Unless stated otherwise, the opinions expressed by the hosts or guests are made in their individual capacity, not on behalf of the Institute nor medicine cases. First up, we have Swami on a halo procedure that's relatively easy to do, but like we said

in our ophthal trauma episode, the hardest thing is just deciding to do it.

Like the Nike, I'd say, just do it.

And you need to do it like a ninja.

So listen up.

Most of what we do in emergency medicine isn't

resuscitation. It's not critical care. It's not critical procedures. In fact, most of the

procedures we do are things like I&D of abscesses and maybe a suture repair. But we do have to know a

certain number of rare and critical procedures. These are the so-called high acuity, low occurrence,

are halo procedures. And the one that we're going to talk about today, the lateral canthotomy

or cantholysis. Having to perform a canthotomy is an unusual event. Many physicians have never

done one. Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm the outlier here. I've been involved in at least

10 of these. And with each one, I've learned a little bit more, and I want to share some of those

tips with you guys. One of the key things that I've learned is that many ophthalmologists have

also never done one of these. So you can't always rely on your consultant, even if you happen to

...