Situs inversus totalis is a rare (0.01% of the population) condition where patients have a mirror-image reversal of their internal chest and abdominal organs. For example, the heart is in the right chest, the liver in the left upper abdominal quadrant, and the stomach/spleen in the right upper quadrant. Because…
Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) like the HeartMate 3 are routinely being implanted as a mechanical circulatory bridge-to-transplant (BTT) or destination therapy (DT). My anesthetic plan for LVAD placement includes general endotracheal anesthesia, arterial line, central venous catheter (oftentimes with PA catheter), and intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). In particular with…
Reading a chest x-ray (CXR) is an incredibly important aspect of acute care medicine and a skill that all healthcare providers should at least have some comfort in doing. The key for interpreting any radiographic image is having a methodical approach you follow every single time, no matter how simple or complex…
High resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scans provide an extraordinary amount of information to practitioners. In fact, many findings on HRCT have terms which are incorrectly used for ordinary CT scans (honeycombing, tree-in-bud appearance, ground glass opacities, etc.) I start reviewing a HRCT by looking at functional units of the respiratory…