Rashes, Ophthalmology & Headache

Updated: 18th April 2018

Background

Rashes and ophthalmology can almost be regarded as "odds and ends", they are often taught very minimally at an undergraduate level. However at a post graduate level you are expected to manage them without further exposure to the specialities.

The key skill is to be able to distinguish between the serious pathology and the benign conditions. This is also the key step in the management of headaches.

Another difficulty may be parental anxiety surrounding these topics, parents may worry the rash is meningitis, the eye problem may blind their child or if the headache a tumour? It is the non-technical skills, backed up by sound clinical knowledge that are needed for these problems.

LEARNING OUTCOMES FROM COMPLETING THE TASKS

LEARNING OUTCOMES FROM FACE-TO-FACE TEACHING

TASKS

Complete the following before the face-to-face session:

TASK 1: Common Childhood EXANTHEMs

Task 2: Eye infections and Eye trauma

Duration: 50 mins

Video summaries of the two topics by an american opthalmologist, some of it is more relevant to our opthalmology colleagues and the antibiotic therapies he reccomends differ from our practice. However the section on orbital vs pre-orbital cellulitis is useful and relevant to the CT3 curriculum, as are the anatomy and clinical features of the other conditions.

Task 3: A Swollen Eye

Task 4: Paediatric Headache

Duration: 50 mins

Two podcasts looking at paediatric headaches and their investigation.

The first includes specific discussion around the international classification of headache and the features of different types of headache. They also reflect on some cases where serious pathology was missed. There is some focus on the clinical examination of a child with headache and they use a pneumonic: "P.A.W.E.R" to screen for significant pathology and touch upon the evidence base behind this.

The second reviews the literature around the investigation of paediatric headaches, and the attempt to answer the question of how to discriminate the serious from the "benign".

Task 5: Be Brain Tumour Aware

Duration: 45 mins

Each week in the UK, around ten children or teenagers are diagnosed with a brain tumour in the UK. The time taken from a child’s first symptoms to diagnosis of a brain tumour for half of the children to be diagnosed is currently 12-13 weeks (median) in the UK, the other half take longer, sometimes up to a year or two. In comparison, similar figures in other countries show that half the cases are diagnosed in as little as 5 weeks.

The aim of the HeadSmart campaign is to reduce the time it takes to diagnose children and young people with brain tumours in the UK by educating healthcare professionals and the public about the symptoms of brain tumours in children and young people.

CASE DISCUSSION

We have written a series of interactive cases (wikis) with short answer questions to be answered by trainees prior to the face to face teaching sessions. Currently this is only available to East Midlands Trainees.

Answer one or two questions before attending the face-to-face teaching session. Add comments to answers already given if you think it's appropriate. We will also provide tutor comments. If you find good resources that answer a question why not include links in your comment.

Part of the face-to-face teaching will be spent discussing the case(s) below:

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Here are some extra resources to review if you want more information:

COURSE FEEDBACK