Over the years, I’ve used many types of fluid warmers from rapid infusers like the Belmont and Level 1 to more conventional products like…
The glycocalyx is a surface layer of proteins lining the luminal (blood-containing) side of vascular endothelium. It plays an important role as a vascular…
As an intensivist and anesthesiologist, I spend a considerable amount of time pondering the physiology and evidence for practices and questioning dogma rampant in…
Albumin is the most abundant globular plasma protein, an important transport protein, and the primary determinant of oncotic pressure (the colloid osmotic pressure that…
The “NPO guidelines” (ie, 8 hours for full meals, 6 hours for light meals, 2 hours for clear liquids) have varying degrees of “evidence”,…
Lactated Ringer’s (LR) is a balanced crystalloid solution created by Dr. Sydney Ringer in the 1880s using ex-vivo frog hearts. It contains sodium, chloride,…
Normal saline is one of the most ubiquitous medications one can find in medicine. 1 liter of solution contains 154 mEq of sodium and…
This topic was actually brought up by a medical student who worked with me last week in the operating room. After seeing a unit…