Blood conservation strategies are routinely employed in cardiac surgery to minimize the overall need for transfusions. Techniques such as Cell Saver, retrograde autologous priming (RAP) of the cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) circuit, utilizing CPB tubing that requires less priming, and intraoperative autologous blood donation (IAD) with the isolation of platelet-rich plasma…
As a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist and intensivist, I’ve transfused countless blood products and factor concentrates over the years. We’ve all seen “type and screen” orders, but what exactly does a blood type tell us?
While fourth-year medical students around the country found out if they matched today, I spent the morning doing a type and screen on myself! The blood bank phlebotomist drew some blood, and I proceeded to run the centrifuge, gels, and add reagents under the direction of an expert technician.
I have one more day call tomorrow, and I’ll be done with my elective on the hematology/oncology service. Its been a great month working with my colleagues on other consult services to coordinate patient care. The topic of Obamacare has become a fervent interest for many over the last few…
As I young child, I distinctly remember being fascinated by my dad’s career in medical technology. Watching the centrifuge separate blood components within a test tube was pretty cool, but I found mounting slides, looking through a microscope, and identifying different cell types to be way more interesting. In retrospect,…
Friday was my last day in the Progressive Care Unit and marked the conclusion of my 2nd month as a resident. I learned so much about the “art of medicine” from my attendings and was honored to work with a great bunch of colleagues.
Rosai-Dorfman is a very rare condition with unknown etiology characterized by histiocyte-rich lymphadenopathy throughout the body. I had never encountered this disease process before my preceptorship on Thursday and was eager to learn a bit more in spite of its low prevalence.
On account of today being the earliest I’ve woken up since starting my rotations in January, I’ll write this post in segments throughout the day.