Hi everyone,

Anaphylaxis is an unpredictable scary life-threatening condition which unfortunately is more common than we would like. If you work in healthcare chances are you will have seen this condition or perhaps you may even be unlucky enough to have suffered an anaphylaxis yourself.

To introduce the topic in this first episode, Graeme and I discuss a life threatening case of perioperative anaphylaxis to intravenous muscle relaxant, which occurred a few years ago. This case was pretty stressful and about as severe as it can get but it demonstrates a number of important aspects of this potentially life-threatening condition.

(* The patient involved in this case provided written consent for the details to be used for education - some aspects of this case have also been published in a case report in the International Journal of Obstetric Anaesthesia).

Next week we have a detailed discussion including the pathophysiology, talk about the NAP6 national audit into perioperative anaphylaxis in the UK, and of course discuss the management principles and finally offer you some links to important useful education resources.

References

NAP6 UK National Audit Project into perioperative anaphylaxis

(* The patient involved in this weeks case provided written consent for her case to be used for education - some aspects of this case have also been published in a case report in the International Journal of Obstetric Anaesthesia).

Here is the published case report of the case we discussed in this podcast - focusing on the hyperfibrinolysis which occurred:

H.T.Truong, R.M.Browning Anaphylaxis-induced hyperfibrinolysis in pregnancy. International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia; Volume 24, Issue 2, May 2015, 180-184