Tasty Morsels of Critical Care
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care is a bite-sized medical education podcast aimed at doctors preparing for critical care fellowship exams. Each short episode tackles a single high-yield topic from intensive care medicine, breaking it into digestible chunks. The focus is on practical ICU knowledge and exam-relevant clinical pearls rather than lengthy lectures. It is produced by Andy Neill and published through the Emergency Medicine Ireland podcast feed.
Episodes
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 098 | Meningitis and Encephalitis
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast.
Today we cover some of the material from Oh’s manual chapter 54 on meningitis and encephalitis. This is a broad enough topic so the post will be correspondingly broad and somewhat superficial.
There are a number of presentations to consider this in and you will undoubtedly commence treatment on a lot of patients who do not end up no
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 097 | Infective Endocarditis – Management
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast.
This is part 2 of infective endocarditis, this time covering the highlights of endocarditis management from the ICU perspective.
Once the diagnosis is made and checked that the diagnosis is solid (remember there are published criteria about how to reach the diagnosis) then you should be reaching for some antibiotics. The guidelines have m
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 096 | Infective Endocarditis – Diagnosis
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast.
For the next couple of posts we’re going to focus on infective endocarditis. We have had something of a run of these over the past few months with every other cardiac surgery seemingly being done for IE. Not all of this will be relevant to every intensive care unit but as I work in an ICU with lots of cardiac surgery we will be cove
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 095 | Blunt CerebroVascular Injury
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast.
Today we look at blunt cerebrovascular injury or BCVI. I added this to my list to cover for unclear reasons as when i looked back at my notes i had about 8 bullet points and a couple of referenced articles. So this will be shorter than usual I suspect.
Effectively this refers to injuries to the carotids and vertebral arteries in the conte
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 094 | Haemoglobin targets in critical care
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast.
Today we’re going to look at the red stuff – blood, and when to give it. This will cover some of Oh’s Manual chapter 97 covering blood transfusion. But we’ll have a focus on transfusion targets. There’s a nice narrative of evidence here over the past 20 years that has given us a relatively robust evidence bas
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 093 | Prone Positioning
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast.
Today we look at something we do fairly frequently in ICU, especially in the post COVID era: prone positioning or to use its preferred technical term: adult tummy time. This has been around for a long time but was uncommonly done in the pre COVID days and was always a talking point when it did happen. But then 2020 came and you’d sp
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 092 | Oesophageal Balloon
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast.
Today we’re going to have a quick overview of the oesophageal balloon. If you’re directed to a patient in your long case who has an oesophageal balloon in, then you’re probably having a bad day. It would seem very unfair to have too many questions on this but an awareness of their existence and some cliff notes on their
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 091 | Pulmonary Embolism Management
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast.
This is the second of 2 parts on PE in critical care. The first focused on risk stratification and this one will focus on management. There is a link to a transcript of a more comprehensive talk with references on emergencymedicineireland.com for those keen enough to dive a little deeper. As noted in the last podcast this one leans very h
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 090 | Pulmonary Embolism Risk Stratification
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast.
I haven’t managed to cover PE on the podcast yet. I have been involved in lots of small PE projects over the years and have developed something of an interest in it. I got invited to give a talk to the national EM conference this year and these podcasts are sort of the cliff notes version of that lecture. The full talk is linked to
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 089 | Hypertriglyceridemia-induced acute pancreatitis
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast.
Hypertriglyceridaemua induced pancreatitis came up at a recent trainee presentation and I thought despite it being pretty niche and rare, it’s still common enough that it might be fair game for an SAQ or perhaps a side bar in a viva discussion.
Pancreatitis is of course a common presentation to the ICU and can range from the straigh
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 088 | Acute Liver Failure
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’re going to try and cover the not insubstantial topic of acute liver failure from Oh’s Manual chapter 44. As you can imagine this will be a superficial skim ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 087 | Diabetes Insipidus
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we look at the other diabetes. We are of course all familiar with the sweet urine of diabetes mellitus but this time we will look at the tasteless or ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 086 | Heparin Induced Thrombocytopaenia
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Following on from the recent post on Heparin, today we’re going to talk about one of its more significant complications – Heparin Induced Thromboyctopaenia or HIT for short. In my ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 084 | Empyema
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Following on from our initial post in this entirely accidental series on “things you don’t want to find in the chest drain” we turn our eyes (if not our noses) ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 083 | Chylothorax
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we look at quite a niche topic, that of chylothorax. We are used to many things in the pleural space, like simple fluid or blood or air but the ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 082 | Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. We’re going to cover a bit of an environmental/tox topic today and look at carbon monoxide poisoning from Oh’s manual chapter 83 on burns. I have previously covered this on ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 081 | Pulmonary Hypertension ICU management strategies
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. We’ve been talking about pulmonary hypertension, last time we had a pretty broad overview with a focus on group 1 or pulmonary arterial hypertension. This time we’re going to go ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 080 | Pulmonary Hypertension Overview
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. This time we’re looking at pulmonary hypertension. Mainly cause I recently had to give a talk on it so it’s fresh in my rapidly diminishing brain cells and thought I ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 079 | Hyponatraemia – management
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Last time i was butchering my way through a diagnostic approach to hyponatraemia, particularly the forms likely to end up in the critical care end of the hospital. This time ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 078 | Hyponatraemia – diagnostic approach
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we cover an incredibly common inpatient issue – hypnatraemia. We’ll often find 1 or 2 of these in our high dependency unit at any given time, mainly due to ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 077 | Thyroid emergencies
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’ll cover some key exam content, all be it not something you’re likely to run into in the ICU too often. The thyroid is a deceptive little organ, tucked ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 076 | VV ECMO
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’ll talk about one of the niche and shall I say “advanced” in inverted commas therapies in intensive care practice. ECMO. And to be precise we’ll be talking about ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 075 | Vasopressin
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Way back in the way back in tasty morsel number 43 we discussed inotropes and vasopressors but there was a noticeable AHD analogue shaped hole in that post that i ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 074 | Dynamic LV outflow tract obstruction
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’re going to verge into challenging territory for an audio podcast in that we’re going to the discuss the very visual topic of dynamic LV outflow tract obstruction. This ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 073 | Hepatorenal syndrome
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Following hot on the heels of tasty morsel number 72 on cardio renal syndrome is its partner in nephron injury: hepatorenal syndrome. This gets covered in a sub section of ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 072 | Cardiorenal syndrome
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we tackle a somewhat nebulous syndrome. Something we throw around with a few hand wavy explanations but often light on detail. Hopefully in a few minutes you’ll at least ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 071 | Non invasive ventilation in the ICU
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Oh Chapter 37 is dedicated to NIV in the ICU and is probably worth some time given that this is a common respiratory support both in the ICU and throughout ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 070 | CRRT Modes
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’re covering the ambitious topic of CRRT in the ICU. Something that occupies a central part of the daily job, but also occupies Oh Chapter 48, Irwin and Rippe ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 069 | Sub Arachnoid Haemorrhage
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Nestled towards the end of Oh Chapter 51 we have a section dedicated to SAH. Given that a lot of ICU bed days are given over to managing SAH, I ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 068 | Ventilator Triggering
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we are going to talk about triggering on the ventilator. Now given the ubiquity of the word “triggering” in contemporary discourse I must confess that i do find it ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 067 | The pulmonary artery catheter
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we are going to do our best to charm the yellow snake of the intensive care unit and cover the pulmonary artery floatation catheter. Like a lot, indeed practically ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 066 | Solid Tumors in Intensive Care
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. The subject of solid tumours in the ICU gets a whole chapter in Oh’s hallowed pages, number 46. I suppose the term solid is in place to distinguish it from ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 065 | Cerebral Protection
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. This time we look at Oh Chapter 52, focused on cerebral protection. There is, I must admit some repetition and cross over here, particularly with tasty morsels 20 and 39 ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 064 | Staph Aureus
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. In yet another departure from the stone tablets of Oh’s manual, today we’ll talk a little about one of favourite gram +ve cocci: staphylococcus aureus. Diagnosis and management of infections ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 063 | Respiratory Compliance
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’re not so much looking at a chapter of Oh’s manual but at the physiologic concept of respiratory compliance. I approach this with a degree of trepidation as the ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 062 | Diuretics
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’re going to talk about some of the basics of some of our favorite drugs intensive care – the diuretics. As always this is planned to be a brief ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 061 | Asthma
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’re looking at asthma. In reality I find this is much more commonly discussed than seen in real life. No doubt this is due in part, to an improvement ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 060 | The post cardiac surgery patient
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Oh chapter 26 devotes a whole chapter to this and for those of us in cardiac units the arrival of several post cardiac surgery patients a day in your unit ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 059 | Dead space
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’re talking about dead space. While it may sound like something from The Expanse, we’re actually talking about the physiological concept of dead space here. This is pretty core ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 058 | Haematological malignancy
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Of the many things I poorly understand, I suspect that haematology holds a special place. Knowing the intricacies of the haematological malignancies was not exactly core knowledge for emergency medicine ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 057 | Myasthenia Gravis
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’re looking at a small section of Oh Chapter 58 covering myasthenia gravis. I don’t think I’ve ever looked after a true myasthenic crisis in the ICU. Likely because ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 056 | Aspergillosis
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we look at everyone’s favorite mould – aspergillus. We see a number of fungal infections in the ICU, most commonly it’ll be the yeasts – forms of candida. Yeasts ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 055 | Salicylate poisoning
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. This time round we’ll look at an oldie but a goodie: salicylate poisoning. I have not seen one of these in quite some time but it is a classic tox ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 054 | Chest injuries
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. This time round we’re going to have a look at some chest wall injuries you should know about. The main reference here is Oh’s manual chapter 79. The vast majority ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 053 | Recurrent clotting of the filter
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Usually the topics here follow the well trodden path of Oh’s manual, but we’re looking at something primarily because it is an ideal question for a fellowship exam. In this ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 052 | Bronchoscopy in the ICU
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. There’s not a huge amount of notes on procedural stuff that I accumulated for the exams but I did collect some interesting bits on bronchoscopy, particularly because it was so ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 051 | Parenteral nutrition
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Sometimes the tasty morsels are exam sized snippets of my knowledge on a given topic. More frequently they are literally all I know on the subject. Today’s topic of parenteral ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 050 | Spinal cord injuries
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. This is number 50, so for all 7 of you out there, well done for making it this far especially when you can’t even get CPD points for it. Today ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 049 | Candida
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’ll look at everyone’s favourite yeast – Candida. Firstly, remember the distinction between yeasts and moulds. Yeasts, like Candida species are single celled critters whereas moulds like aspergillus are ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 048 | Anaphylaxis
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we look at anaphylaxis. Oh’s Manual 67 forms the basis for most of this. In many ways this is fairly straightforward. You give adrenaline and they get better. However ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 047 | Haemostatic failure
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. This week we’ll make a fly by at part of Oh Chapter 100 looking at haemostatic failure. The understanding of the haemostatic system seems a little like the universe at ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 046 | Abdominal Compartment Syndrome
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. This week we’re looking at the other ACS, the surgical ACS, the old abdominal compartment syndrome. This is common, especially in the surgical population and does not always immediately jump ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 045 | Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear exposures
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Oh dedicates an entire chapter, number 88 to CBRN issues. While not commonly seen you can rest assured that critical care will be expected to turn up and manage these ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 044 | Calcium Disorders
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. It is with trepidation that I approach any topic that involves the negative feedback loops of endocrine control as I really struggle to keep it all straight in my head, ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 043 | Inotropes and vasopressors
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Condensing all of “inotropes and vasopressors” into a single 5 minute podcast is of course doomed to fail but that’s never stopped me before. The main reference for this is ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 042 | Nitric Oxide
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. In a further scandalous departure from Oh’s Manual today we’re going to look at a chapter of verified Irish Critical Care legend, Martin Tobin’s huge mechanical ventilation textbook. I have ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 041 | Gas Emboli
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’re going to talk about a fairly rare and niche issue in critical care – gas embolism. The venerated stone tablets of Oh’s Manual do not mention it in ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 040 | Respiratory Monitoring
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. With extreme brevity we are going to try and cover Oh’s Manual Chapter 38 on respiratory monitoring. This is something of a hodge podge i must admit. I’ll start by ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 039 | Management of raised ICP
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. This is part of Oh’s Manual Chapter 77 on head injury and we covered ICP monitoring before in number 20. A key principle here is cerebral perfusion pressure or CPP. ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 038 | Lung Transplantation
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. Oh’s Manual chapter 104 has a decent chapter on the intensive care aspects of lung transplant. A lot of this stuff ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 037 | Serotonin Syndrome
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. This week: serotonin syndrome. Much talked about, very common in an exam, quite rare in real life. It doesn’t really get ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 036 | Oxygen
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. Today we’re talking a little about that most vital of gases – oxygen. This is going to be back to some ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 035 | When to start CRRT
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. Today we’ll talk about CRRT timing. When should your critically ill patient take a spin on the green machine? From an ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 034 | Chemotherapy agents and intensive care
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. If you were tuning in to try and pick up some core exam level content then this is probably not it. ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 033 | Pre-eclampsia
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. Today we’re looking at Oh Chapter 64 covering some of the absolute basics of pre eclampsia. ICU level pre eclampsia is ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 032 | Nutritional requirements in ICU
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. Today’s podcast is mostly taken from Oh’s manual Chapter 96 covering critical care nutrition. Something we all know and love deeply ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 031 | Guillain-Barre Syndrome Part 2
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. GBS management can be nicely split into disease specific management and ICU supportive care. In terms of specific treatment this is ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 030 | Guillain-Barre Syndrome Part 1
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. GBS is a clinically important diagnosis for both the emergency department and the ICU. Its rareish but common enough that you ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 029 | Clostridium Difficile
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. We see C. Diff in the ICU in a couple of contexts. Firstly the poor unfortunate soul who starts with a ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 028 | HIV in the ICU
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care fellowship exam preparation. HIV in the ICU is becoming a bit of a rare beast as the ID docs seem to have it so ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 027 | Plasmapheresis
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Plasmapheresis (or PLEX) is one of the machines we tend not to have responsibility for in the ICU. Unlike CRRT we tend to defer to another specialty to do this. ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 026 | Short bowel syndrome
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. SBS is not a common thing to find in the ICU and the most likely context here is going to be receiving someone from the operating theatre who has had ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 025 | Andrenocortical insufficiency
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. The commonest time we think of adrenocortical insufficiency in the ICU is probably in sepsis. This post will definititely not cover the beast that is steroid use in the intensive ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 024 | The aminoglycosides
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. A meandering monologue through critical care exam preparation. The aminoglycosides see themselves as a bit special. Not content with producing deafness and killing kidneys they’ve also demanded awkward dosing schedules, ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 023 | Cardiac Pacing
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Cardiac pacing comes in a variety of flavours in critical care but a reasonable list of class I indications for permanent pacing might include: 2nd/3rd block with symptoms and bradycardia, ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 022 | Necrotising fasciitis
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Continuing along a theme of words with with too many i’s in them, (see TM 007 for more) today we look at necrotising fasciitis or “nec fasc” to its friends. ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 021 | Time cycling vs flow cycling
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Ventilators remain one of the dark arts and hidden mysteries of critical care. Intensive care is a fairly generalist specialty overall and we share our core knowledge with a lot ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 020 | ICP Monitoring
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Like most spaces within the body, the contents within the cranium are under a certain degree of pressure. The skull being a rigid box can accommodate pressure much less than ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 019 | Liver Transplant Part 2
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Welcome back to what I hope will be the final little segment (boom boom) on liver transplant. Part 1 lives here. Though at this stage I certainly can’t rule out ... Read More »
Tasty Morsels of Critical Care 018 | Liver Transplant Part 1
Welcome back to the tasty morsels of critical care podcast. Today we’re covering Oh’s Manual Chapter 103 looking at liver transplant. There are two types of liver disease that might put you in line for a transplant acute liver failure ... Read More »
