An anesthesiologist is a person, standing at the interface of medical and surgical specialties. He may cease to be an expert outside his field; but still possess a bird’s eye view of most specialties. So I would like to label him as a 'layman' among the various specialists, who can save lives. This blog contains, easy to read snippets of info from his world i.e. Anesthesiology
Monday, September 5, 2016
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
DESFLURANE & ITS VAPORIZER
🎈#Desflurane has a saturated vapour pressure of 664 mm of Hg @ 20 degree C and a boiling point of 22.6 degree C
🎈This is less than other agents; thus it requires a specific vaporizer
🎈The Tec Mk 6 vaporizer is a plenum vaporizer and is designed for desflurane.
🎈It operates at 39 °C and 2 atmospheres (All other vaporizers operate at atmospheric pressure and temperature).
🎈It takes 5–10 minutes to warm up to the correct temperature.
🎈It will not operate until the vaporisation chamber has reached 39 °C.
🎈It needs an external power supply, and it has a 9 V battery as a backup in case of mains failure.
🎈Unlike other plenum vaporisers, the Tec Mk 6 vaporizer is designed so that the fresh gas flow does not enter the chamber. The desflurane vapour is added to the fresh gas flow as it leaves the vaporiser.
#anesthesia , #anaesthesia , #anesthetist
Reference: Al-Shaikh B, Stacey S. Essentials of Anaesthetic Equipment, 2nd edn. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2002
Monday, August 29, 2016
FLOWMETER : PRINCIPLES BEHIND
🔸The flowmeter / rotameter is a variable-orifice device used to measure the flow of oxygen, air and nitrous oxide in the anesthesia machine
🔸It usually contains a bobbin
🔸The pressure of gas beneath the bobbin pushes it up the flowmeter until the force beneath it is balanced by the force of gravity pulling it back to its resting position.
🔸The variable orifice of the flowmeter means that the flow of gas past the bobbin at low flows is laminar, but at high flows it is turbulent.
🔸The flutes on the bobbin are to ensure continuous movement of the bobbin as gas passes it, showing that it is not stuck.
🔸The variable orifice of the flowmeter is responsible for the turbulent flow.
Friday, August 19, 2016
HOW EVOKED POTENTIALS BEHAVE , WHEN BRAIN SUFFERS FROM ISCHEMIA ❓
🕶Cerebral ischemia slows neurotransmission and neuronal energy metabolism, resulting in decreased amplitude and increased latency of specific peaks.
🕶For SSEPs, a 50% reduction in amplitude and/or a 10% increase in latency [changes in the central conduction times, namely, the interpeak latencies between the N14 and N20 peaks] of SSEP signals from the baseline are generally accepted to be a significant change
🕶A 50% reduction on SEP amplitude has been shown to occur when cerebral blood flow decreases below 14 mL/100 g/min
🕶MEP have less well-defined warning criteria as compared to SSEPs; however, increased stimulus thresholds and/or decreased MEP amplitudes in relation to dramatic events (i.e., clip application) are indicative of pending neurologic insult.
🕶For BAEP, an increase in latency of more than 1 msec, particularly in wave V, is considered to be clinically significant.
🕶Unlike EEG monitoring the evoked potential tests can detect subcortical functional status by way of perforating branches such as the anterior choroidal and medial striate arteries
Reference: Anesthesiology Research and Practice Volume 2014, Article ID 595837, Controversies in the Anesthetic Management of Intraoperative Rupture of Intracranial Aneurysm, Tumul Chowdhury, Andrea Petropolis,Marshall Wilkinson, Bernhard Schaller Nora Sandu and Ronald B. Cappellani
ADENOSINE INDUCED TRANSIENT ASYSTOLE FOR INTRACRANIAL ANEURYSM CLIPPING SURGERY
▶️Adenosine alters electrical conduction at the atrioventricular (AV) node and has a negative chronotropic effect on the sinoatrial node.
▶️Adenosine acts on cardiac A1 receptors to reduce cAMP activity, which decreases inward calcium conductance and diminishes pacemaker current, resulting in bradycardia, AV nodal blockade, and sinus pauses.
▶️It has a very short half-life time (less than 10 seconds) and is rapidly taken up by the vascular endothelium and erythrocytes.
▶️The effect on heart rate is seen within 10 to 20 seconds after administration
▶️ There is a relative hypotension period, 1 minute after asystole
▶️Multiple doses are usually required for very large and complex aneurysms to obtain repeated episodes of asystole
▶️ Bebawy et al. recommended an initial dose of between 0.3 and 0.4 mg/kg ideal body weight (IBW)
▶️ Powers et al. gave a standard 6 mg dose initially escalated to 6 mg more than the previous dose (e.g. 6 mg, 12 mg, 18 mg, 24 mg ; repeating the dose as often as every 1 to 2 minutes) until 30 to 40 seconds of asystole was reached.
▶️ Guinn NR et al reported the median dose of intravenous adenosine resulting in bradycardia greater than 30 seconds was 30 mg. The median dose of adenosine resulting in hypotension greater than 30 seconds was 15 mg, and greater than 60 seconds was 30 mg
▶️Luostarien et al. reported that the median dose for a single bolus was 12 (6–18) mg, whereas the median total dose for multiple boluses was 27 (18–89) mg
▶️ Hypotension ( most often transient , sometimes requiring vasopressors), atrial fibrillation etc were reported as side effects
▶️ Adenosine-induced flow arrest briefly reduces cerebral perfusion pressure and reduces the turgor of the aneurysm, thereby facilitating the clip ligation
▶️ The adenosine dose will achieve approximately 45 seconds of controlled systemic hypotension and a bloodless surgical field.
▶️ Periods of flow arrest have to be carefully coordinated with the surgeon such that necessary working time is available for aneurysm dissection and clip placement
Reference: Adenosine-Induced Transient Asystole
Gavin W. Britz, Methodist Debakey Cardiovasc J. 2014
Oct-Dec; 10(4): 220–223.
Adenosine-induced transient asystole for intracranial aneurysm surgery: a retrospective review. Guinn NR, et al. J Neurosurg Anesthesiol. 2011.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
DRAW-OVER VAPORISERS IN A NUTSHELL FOR EXAMS
🏺They are placed inside the breathing system and rely on a negative pressure downstream from the vaporiser to create the flow required to entrain the agent. This negative pressure is generated either by the patient’s own inspiration or by a self-inflating bag
🏺So they must have a very low resistance to flow to avoid additional resistance to the patient’s breathing.
🏺Goldman vaporiser, the Oxford miniature vaporiser (OMV) and the Epstein MacIntosh vaporiser (EMV) etc are draw-over vaporisers. The triservice apparatus, used by the military, incorporates two OMVs
🏺 They are simpler, lightweight, smaller and less expensive.
🏺 As it is not possible to calibrate for the large range of tidal volumes created by the patient/ self-inflating bag, they are inaccurate
🏺So they are not generally used in hospitals, and are reserved for ‘in-the-field’ use, where portability is required.
Reference: Al-Shaikh B, Stacey S. Essentials of Anaesthetic Equipment, 2nd edn. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2002 . Davis PD, Kenny GNC. Basic Physics and Measurement in Anaesthesia, 5th edn. Oxford: Butterworth–Heinemann, 2003 .
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Physics For Anesthesiologist ( #PFA ) : #IMPEDANCE
🖊Impedance is a term that is commonly used in the world of #electrophysiology and #BiomechanicalEngineering.
🖊The chance of getting an electric shock is high when you have wet hands because the impedance of the skin is lower than when it is dry.
🖊Thoracic impedance increases during inspiration.
🖊When applying electric current to the chest during #defibrillation, less energy may reach the heart during the inspiratory phase than during the expiratory phase because of this phenomenon, thereby decreasing the possible success of defibrillation.
🖊So better to attempt defibrillation during the expiratory phase of mechanical ventilation.
🖊Where the #resistance of a circuit is dependent on the frequency of the current through it, the term impedance is used.
🖊The unit of impedance is therefore the same as that of resistance (the ohm), but the symbol Z is used to differentiate it from the symbol used for resistance (Ω).
🖊In case of a capacitor, as the frequency of the current increases, the current passes through the circuit more easily, i.e. the resistance of the capacitor falls with increasing current frequency.
🖊In contrast, the resistance of an inductor rises as the frequency of the current increases.
#PhysicsForAnesthesiologist , #anesthesiologist , #anesthesia , #biomedical
Davis PD, Kenny GNC. Basic Physics and Measurement in Anaesthesia, 5th edn. Oxford: Butterworth–Heinemann, 2003; pp. 149–64 . Ewy GA, Hellman DA, McClung S, Taren D. Influence of ventilation phase on transthoracic impedance and defibrillation effectiveness. Crit Care Med 1980; 8: 164–6
Saturday, August 13, 2016
LESSER KNOWN FACTS ABOUT A WELL KNOWN PERSON : PROPOFOL
✔️Pain on injection due to Propofol is INCREASED BY
🔹rapid injection
🔹lower temperature of the propofol
🔹the use of an IV carrier infusion to dilute the propofol as it enters the vein
✔️ Propofol is almost entirely un-ionised in solution
✔️ The soya bean oil and egg components are denatured by processing and there is no evidence that propofol should be avoided in patients with allergies to eggs or soya
Reference: Pandit J. Intravenous anaesthetic agents. Anaesth Intens Care Med 2007; 9 (4): 154–9
#Propofol , #EggAllergy , #anesthesia
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