Ever wonder if a patient’s swollen epiglottis is actually an aggressive case of epiglottitis or if a dislocated jaw is at risk of infection? During his session, “Quick Tips: Rapid ENT Procedures in the ED,” Herbert Hern, MD, will cover an array of common ENT injuries and conditions and offer clever tools and techniques for how to treat them in the ED.

“It’s going to focus mostly on procedures that emergency practitioners can perform,” said Dr. Hern, associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco and emergency medicine residency director at Alameda County Highland Hospital in Oakland, California. In the session, Dr. Hern will present eight to 10 rapid-fire ENT procedures including “the best evidence for treating a peritonsillar abscess and an interesting and cool way of looking at the epiglottis.” Using a laryngoscope, he will actually let audience members examine his own epiglottis during the session.

Dr. Hern will also discuss novel methods for stopping bleeding, procedures for periauricular and nasal-septal hematomas, jaw dislocations, and how to cleverly remove nasal foreign bodies like jelly beans.

“There’s this cool device that allows you to slip a little straw behind the jelly bean and then blow up this balloon and pull it out,” Dr. Hern explained. He plans to show a video of himself removing a jelly bean from a colleague’s nose. “It’s a really cool visual demonstration of how easy it is to use this tool.” Dr. Hern said that most of his tools and methods are readily available to the average emergency department.

Dr. Hern is an experienced physician and passionate about ENT and emergency medicine, so his session promises to be worthwhile. “[I want attendees to take away] an armamentarium of rapid ENT procedures that you can perform in any basic ED that can be lifesaving, time-saving, and result in great patient outcomes and satisfaction.”

Michael O’Neal is a writer based in New Jersey.