Designing the Third- and Fourth-Years Clerkship Schedule.

Deciding on a specialty may be one of the most daunting parts of medical school. Accordingly, it is important for medical students to make informed decisions regarding their choice of specialty. To do so, they should start planning early by contemplating possible career choices during the first 2 years of medical school, followed by properly designing their third- and fourth-year schedules. This article provides guidance and advice to medical students on how to schedule their clinical clerkships in order to optimize their ability to decide on a field of medicine to study and, ideally, to prepare them for a career in emergency medicine.

Ovarian torsion in a 5-year old: a case report and review.

Ovarian torsion represents a true surgical emergency. Prompt diagnosis is essential to ovarian salvage, and high clinical suspicion is important in this regard. Confounding the diagnosis in general are more commonly encountered abdominal complaints in the Emergency Department (ED) such as constipation, diarrhea, and urinary tract infections and more common surgical emergencies such as appendicitis. Prompt diagnosis can be further complicated in low-risk populations such as young children. Herein, we describe the case of a 5-year-old girl with a seemingly benign presentation of abdominal pain who was diagnosed in the ED and treated for acute ovarian torsion after two prior clinic visits. A brief discussion of evaluation, treatment, and management of ovarian torsion follows.

Visual Diagnosis: Pearling: a case study.

We present the case of a patient who attempted to perform a type of body modification known as "pearling" or "genital beading" while in prison. This patient unfortunately caused severe trauma to his penis, requiring surgical intervention. Photographs of the traumatic injuries are presented.

A case of a speech impediment following a near lightning strike.

Environmental electrical injuries (electrical burns and lightning) are relatively common and are estimated to result in more than 3,000 admissions to specialized burn units each year here in the US. Lightning injuries are a small subset of electrical injuries and are responsible for an average of 300 injuries and 100 deaths per year in the US. We present a case of a rare injury obtained as a result of a near lightning strike. The case involved a young female who was playing soccer when lightning struck within several feet of where she was standing, resulting in loss of consciousness, paresthesias, tinnitus, muscle spasms and most importantly a new onset of a speech impediment. There is only one reported case of a speech impediment secondary to an electrical injury in the literature.

"Case files from the University of Florida: When an Earache is more than an Earache": A case report.

Brain abscess is not a common diagnosis as there are only approximately 2000 cases reported each year in the United States. There are three main routes of access to the brain including contiguous infection from the oropharynx, direct implantation and hematogenously. We present a case of brain abscess in a child who had multiple visits for ear pain to various physicians including pediatricians and to emergency departments. Additionally, the microbiology of brain abscesses is briefly discussed, as is treatment.