PROPOFOLOGY.COM
  • Home
  • About
    • Donate
    • About >
      • Contributors
      • Why #FOAMed?
    • DISCLAIMER
  • FRCA COURSE
    • Buy FRCA Course
    • Tutorial List
    • International Course
  • BASICS OF CRITICAL CARE
  • Resources
    • Infographs >
      • Full List Index
      • Infograph Blog
      • Contribute
      • PDFs
    • Conferences >
      • ESICM Physiology 2020
      • ICSSOA 2019
      • ESICM LIVES 2019
      • ESICM LIVES 2018 >
        • LIVES 2018 CONTENT
      • IAEM 2018 >
        • Top 5 Studies IAEM
      • IFAD >
        • Case Report
        • The Hub
      • RAUK 2019
      • IFAD2018
      • IFAD2017 Blog
    • Trial Summaries
    • Index
    • Students
    • Absolute Beginner's Guide to Anaesthetics
    • Articles >
      • Articles
      • Tutorials
    • YouTube Channel
    • Anaesthetic Equipment
    • Contributions
    • Espanol
  • Podcasts
  • COVID19
    • Webinars COVID19
  • Anniversary Showcase

Starting off in student anaesthetics - A Brief Guide to the Ventilator

3/21/2016

1 Comment

 
When you begin your anaesthetics placement - it's likely you won't have a notion what is going on.

Don't worry - everyone felt like this the first time they walked toward a ventilator. 

Take your time and orientate yourself to the anaesthetics machine - it's essentially a big machine/bellow that moves vapour-laden gas into the patient's lungs in a closed-circuit. There's a tube from the machine going IN to the patient and one for the gasses when they are exhaled from the patient. The vaporisers (sevoflurane is yellow coded) are situated on the machine and they change the liquid you put into them into a vapour which are then added to the inhaled gases. The machine interprets all the volumes (ml),  flows (L/min) and pressures (cmH2O) and fires out lots of numbers that tell you various things. The machine will tell you about the volume of breathes the patient is either taking (or being put into the patient by the machine), it will also calculate CO2 output of the patient and track it as a waveform called capnography. The machine furthermore calculates the pressure of the closed system and calls them airway pressures - you essentially don't want these do be above 30cmH2O - or damage can occur to the lungs. PEEP is the peak end expiratory pressure generated by the machine - it stops the alveoli collapsing and is often set around 4-5cmH2O - but this goes up and down as appropriate.  Just ask your supervisor if you can sit and play around with the machine settings.

You should also know what MAC is - MAC is a measure of potency and is defined as the minimum alveolar concentration at steady-state that prevents reaction to a standard surgical stimulus (skin incision) in 50% of patients at 1 atmosphere (i.e. sea level). This measurement is done at steady state (assuming a constant alveolar concentration for 15 minutes), under the assumption that this allows for an equilibration between the gasses in the alveoli, the blood and the brain. End-tidal agent monitoring is used by modern anaesthetic monitors to calculate MAC.

If you're feeling like you could watch a short course in introducing the anaesthetic machine - HERE is a good idea to start - watching all the videos.

Otherwise, below is a good video showing an anaesthetic machine check. 
1 Comment
EVERLYNE MUENDO
7/5/2016 11:26:33 am

HELP ME TO SPECIALISE IN ANAESTHESIA AM A CLINICAL OFFICER IN KENYA

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    USE OF THIS WEBSITE IS SUBJECT TO AGREEING TO THIS DISCLAIMER
    ​
    ​
    THIS WEBSITE IS FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS & STUDENTS ONLY

    Picture
    Go to our sister website - QUICKMEDIC.net for the ultimate video revision course for FINAL YEAR medics!
    Full, free Medical Student online-resource
    list is
    here.

    Categories

    All
    Airway
    Autism
    Blood Tests
    Cardiology
    Clinical Examinations
    Dermatology
    Emergencies
    Endocrine/Metabolic
    Gastrointestinal
    Gynae
    Haematology
    Infectious Diseases
    IV Fluids
    Learning Disabilities
    Microbiology
    Nerve Blocks
    Neurology
    Neurosurgery
    Ophthalmology
    Pharmacology
    Procedures
    Psychiatry
    Radiology
    Renal
    Resource List
    Respiratory
    Rheumatology
    Toxicology

    The topics here are expanded when you click 'read more'.

    There are lots of prompter-questions contained within to focus your revision around with appropriate videos to illustrate key points.
    ​

    The resources attempt to focus on high-yield facts, likely to be of use in your final or clinical examinations.

    Author

    Dr. David Lyness
    Final Year Clinical Tutor

    Archives

    January 2018
    October 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    RSS Feed

Creative Commons License
Free to access Propofology Infograms, eBooks and selected YouTube videos by Dr. David Lyness are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Please attribute all works: 'Based on a work by Dr. David Lyness' at www.propofology.com/resources.
Home
About
Contact
ALL SITE USERS SHOULD READ AND AGREE TO THE DISCLAIMER HERE.
Contact via Twitter
  • Home
  • About
    • Donate
    • About >
      • Contributors
      • Why #FOAMed?
    • DISCLAIMER
  • FRCA COURSE
    • Buy FRCA Course
    • Tutorial List
    • International Course
  • BASICS OF CRITICAL CARE
  • Resources
    • Infographs >
      • Full List Index
      • Infograph Blog
      • Contribute
      • PDFs
    • Conferences >
      • ESICM Physiology 2020
      • ICSSOA 2019
      • ESICM LIVES 2019
      • ESICM LIVES 2018 >
        • LIVES 2018 CONTENT
      • IAEM 2018 >
        • Top 5 Studies IAEM
      • IFAD >
        • Case Report
        • The Hub
      • RAUK 2019
      • IFAD2018
      • IFAD2017 Blog
    • Trial Summaries
    • Index
    • Students
    • Absolute Beginner's Guide to Anaesthetics
    • Articles >
      • Articles
      • Tutorials
    • YouTube Channel
    • Anaesthetic Equipment
    • Contributions
    • Espanol
  • Podcasts
  • COVID19
    • Webinars COVID19
  • Anniversary Showcase