Anesthesiologists frequently care for patients at the extremes of age and size. These patient groups have unique features that require special consideration when formulating an anesthetic plan. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight alterations in physiology associated with…
The basic principles of pharmacology are a fundamental element of an anesthesia provider's knowledge base. This chapter provides an overview of key principles in clinical pharmacology used to describe anesthetic drug behavior. Box 4.1 lists definitions of some basic pharmacologic…
Key Points ▪ Pharmacokinetics describes the relationship between drug dose and drug concentration in plasma or at the site of drug effect over time. For anesthetic drugs, the processes of distribution and elimination (metabolism and excretion) govern this relationship. ▪…