It’s fairly rare for anesthesia residents to pursue a dual fellowship, but for those who do, the combination of critical care and adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology is common. After being asked by family members and friends why I want to extend my training by another two years, I decided to outline the…
After consenting my patients for general anesthesia, I’m occasionally asked what drugs will be used during surgery. Without going into too much detail, I refer to our agents by general classes: volatiles, narcotics, muscle relaxants, hypnotics, and reversals. The more medically-inclined patients will often ask for specific names too. Here are…
Ventricular assist devices (VADs) can support the right (RVAD) and left (LVAD) ventricles and were initially utilized as mechanical circulatory support devices for bridge-to-transplant (BTT) in heart failure. Modern continuous flow VADs are also being used for destination therapy (DT) for those who are not candidates for cardiac transplantation or are too ill to…
Today marks the end of my first year of clinical anesthesia (CA-1) and wanted to reflect on things I learned. While my intern year was filled with lessons inherent to becoming a new physician, my CA-1 year was very different! Anesthesiology has an incredibly steep learning curve – advanced physiology and pharmacology, new…
Intraoperative handoffs of anesthesia care to other providers are commonplace whether it’s for breaks or at shift change. While there’s no “correct” way to do this, I’ve outlined the approach I take.