From Plastered to Pathologic: Missed Emergent Diagnoses in the Intoxicated

Patients with a history of alcohol abuse can present with a variety of life-threatening illnesses that require a specialized armamentarium to stabilize and treat. Intoxication can blind providers to critical diagnoses, and our own biases and thought patterns can prevent careful consideration of these patients. Even in patients whose chief complaints have nothing to do with being intoxicated, a mere history of such can alter a patient's diagnostic course in the ED. This lecture will go over some cases of missed (and caught!) diagnoses in the intoxicated or alcoholic patient, and how to avoid the pitfalls of diagnostic bias.