Key points ▪ Preoperative recognition of anemia is essential to provide a systems approach to treatment. ▪ The decision to transfuse a patient with blood products should be based on the entire clinical picture and not the absolute laboratory value.…
Key Points ▪ Achondroplasia frequently makes airway management difficult for patients, and unstable cervical spine anatomy presents the risk of neurologic injury. Postoperative respiratory insufficiency may be a challenge. ▪ Behçet's disease is associated with a variety of cardiovascular diseases…
Key points ▪ Patients with muscular diseases have a postoperative pulmonary complication rate of 25% to 48%. Their inability to take deep inspirations and cough predisposes them to atelectasis and pneumonia. ▪ Muscular dystrophies have variable modes of inheritance and…
Key points ▪ Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathies (HMSNs) are disorders of myelination of the peripheral nervous system resulting in progressive loss of motor and sensory function. ▪ In familial dysautonomia (HSAN-III), anesthesia management is directed at prevention and prompt…
Key points ▪ The presence of chronic or acute kidney disease has significant negative effects on surgical outcomes. Knowledge of key pathophysiologic aspects of glomerular and tubular disorders is a key component to optimal perioperative management of renal patients. ▪…
Key points ▪ Obesity is a common disease. The number of overweight, obese, and morbidly obese persons has increased alarmingly in the last three decades. ▪ Body mass index (BMI) is only one measure of obesity; some patients with high…
Key Points ▪ The liver receives a dual afferent blood supply; the portal vein provides 75% and the hepatic artery 25% of hepatic inflow. With differences in oxygen content, each source contributes about 50% of the liver's oxygen supply. ▪…
Key points ▪ Pulmonary arteriovenous fistulas have congenital and hereditary etiology, and patients are at risk for life-threatening rupture requiring surgery. ▪ Wegener's granulomatosis can affect any organ system, although renal and pulmonary involvement is most common; men ages 40…
Key points ▪ Even the most uncommon cardiac diseases are characterized by common and classifiable patterns of cardiac physiology and pathophysiology. ▪ Knowledge of disease effects on determinants of cardiac function allows the practitioner to select appropriate anesthetic drugs and…
Key points ▪ During ophthalmic surgery, the anesthesiologist is often positioned away from the patient's face, preventing immediate access to the airway, and during many laryngologic surgeries, must share the airway with the surgeon. These logistical exigencies can compromise patient…