Anesthetic Techniques
This stage of anesthesia is considered the most unpredictable stage--it starts at loss of consciousness and ends at the onset of surgical anesthesia.
What is Stage II?
This pathway of the coagulation cascade (aka: tissue factor pathway) is activated when there is damage outside the vascular system.
What is the extrinsic pathway?
This surgical position causes the greatest reduction in functional residual capacity (FRC), making it the least favorable for pulmonary mechanics.
This classification system evaluates visibility of oropharyngeal structures and helps predict intubation difficulty.
What is the Mallampati classification?
According to the ASA Standards for Basic Anesthetic Monitoring, these four parameters must be continually assessed in all patients receiving anesthesia care.
What are oxygenation, ventilation, circulation, and temperature?
This classification of drugs refers to agents that mimic acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction.
What are depolarizing neuromuscular blocking agents?
This pathway is monitored with the partial thromboplastin time (PTT) and activated clotting time (ACT).
What is the intrinsic pathway?
Ulnar nerve injury is best prevented by positioning the forearm in this orientation.
What is supinated or neutral?
A thyromental distance of less than measurement is associated with a difficult intubation.
What is 6 cm (or 3 fingerbreadths)?
This non-invasive monitor measures the percentage of hemoglobin saturated with oxygen.
What is pulse oximetry?
This is the BIS value we aim to maintain during general anesthesia.
What is a BIS value between 40-60?
When this laboratory value is elevated it tells us that clot formation and breakdown are occurring somewhere in the body.
What is D-dimer?
This position increases the risk for perioperative visual loss due to increased venous pressure and ocular compression.
What is the prone position?
This supraglottic airway device can be used as a rescue airway and also serves as a conduit for intubation.
What is the intubating LMA (FasTrach)?
This capnography angle increases when the expiratory valve is in incompetent.
What is the beta angle?
This agent increases acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction to competitively reverse non-depolarizing blocking drugs.
What is neostigmine?
This TEG parameter reflects the final strength of the clot. A decreased value is often treated with platelet transfusion.
What is a maximum amplitude?
This potentially fatal complication occurs more frequently in the sitting position due to the negative pressure gradient between the surgical site and the right atrium, allowing air to be entrained into open venous channels.
What is a venous air embolism (VAE)?
This classification system is used during direct laryngoscopy to describe the view of the glottic structures and predict intubation difficulty.
What is the Cormack-Lehane grading system?
This ECG lead is best for detecting P waves and atrial arrhythmias during anesthesia.
What is lead II?
This agent acts an intravascular reservoir sequestering local anesthetics and thereby reducing the plasma concentrations of local anesthetic.
What is lipid emulsion therapy?
This type of compatibility testing functions as a mini-transfusion, assessing the patient’s serum against a specific donor unit to detect potential antigen-antibody reactions.
What is a full crossmatch?
This peripheral nerve is especially vulnerable to compression where it courses superficially around the fibular head, making it a common site of injury from leg supports or stirrups.
What is the common peroneal nerve?
According to the Difficult Airway Society algorithm, this is the final step after failed intubation, failed supraglottic airway, and unsuccessful mask ventilation.
What is emergency front-of-neck access (e.g., cricothyrotomy)?
This monitoring technique is used when no twitches are present on TOF; it applies a tetanic stimulus followed by a series of single stimuli to assess deep neuromuscular blockade.
What is post-tetanic count (PTC)?