Background: Up to 12% of hospitalized patients require high dose parenteral thiamine treatment to prevent Wernicke’s Encephalopathy, a devastating and easily preventable neurologic disorder that can lead to death. Despite the fact that it is as simple and relatively inexpensive therapy with no known side effects, high dose thiamine continues to be underutilized. Attempts to […]

Background: New Mexico has the highest number of alcohol-related deaths in the country, a title held since 1981. Nationally 1 in 10 deaths in working-aged adults are alcohol-associated whereas in New Mexico the ratio is 1 in 6 deaths. About 130,000 New Mexicans report alcohol dependence or abuse within the past year, but only 3% […]

Background: Prevalence of alcohol use disorder (AUD) on inpatient medicine wards exceeds 40%. Only 50% of these patients develop alcohol withdrawal, of whom only 5-20% develop complicated alcohol withdrawal syndromes (AWS) that warrant treatment and monitoring. Overutilization of the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol Scale, Revised (CIWA-Ar) scale is well-reported in the literature. CIWA-Ar […]

Case Presentation: A 29 year old female presents with one week of sudden onset double vision. She reports accompanying dark spots in her vision, photosensitivity, and some unsteadiness with walking. The patient’s friend noted that her eyes were “crossed” the morning of admission. Past medical history is significant for alcohol abuse and anxiety with a […]

Case Presentation: A 61-year-old male with a history of alcohol abuse and Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus presented with complaints of retrosternal chest pain and multiple bouts of coffee-ground emesis for three days. He reported a three-day binge of drinking vodka prior to the presentation. On examination, he was tachycardic, tachypneic, but normotensive. Hand and tongue tremors […]