Refresher Courses in Anesthesiology

This refresher course will discuss the safety and efficacy of regional anesthesia including US guidance and discuss an evidence based approach to utilization of blocks in children.

Anesthesiologists deliver pediatric sedation in a range of locations outside the operating room. In those sites, the staff, monitors and drugs vary, which may challenge the safe delivery of sedation. We must be aware of the challenges to providing safe delivery of sedation and how to preclude their impact on sedation.

This lecture summarizes various multi-modalanalgesic options to optimize pain management post-cesarean delivery. The role of neuraxialopioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, acetaminophen, gabapentin, wound infiltration, transversus abdominis plane block, and future analgesic options will be reviewed. Analgesic drug exposure in breastfeeding neonates, and techniques to minimize the transfer of analgesics into breast milk will also be discussed.

With the increasing use of IEDs by terrorists in the US it is important that anesthesiologists have knowledge of how to manage casualties should they present at their hospital. This RCL will review the basics of IEDs, the types of injuries caused by IEDs, and what anesthesiologists should anticipate when managing casualties. The principles of managing these casualties are readily adaptable to managing casualties in a mass casualty situation.

This presentation will focus on Physician-Focused Alternative Payment Models (PFPMs) created under the MACRA legislation from a multi-specialty perspective and help anesthesiologists identify trends and opportunities in their communities.

This refresher course lecture will review the incidence, risk factors and mechanisms of perioperative nerve injury, with a special emphasis on the use of electro-diagnostic testing and other imaging studies to guide prognosis and treatment, including surgical reconstructive options. Medical legal risk mitigation strategies will be discussed, along with a review of best practices to prevent inadvertent nerve injection injuries.

Emergency manuals are context-relevant sets of cognitive aids, such as crisis checklists, in this case for perioperative or procedural contexts. The framework for this RC is Why, When, and How emergency manuals can help clinical teams to deliver best practices to patients during critical events. Rationale for why to implement and use emergency manuals will be presented, drawing from high stakes industries and human factors, as well as simulation-based healthcare studies. Vital elements for effective implementation and use will be presented. Potential challenges and pitfalls will be explored, and facilitators of successful implementation and use will be described.

This refresher course lecture will provide the information required to safely anesthetize the pregnant patient presenting for non obstetric surgery. The physiologic changes of pregnancy and how it impacts on the mother, as well as the concepts of teratogenicity and apoptosis as it relates to the developing fetus will be discussed. An anesthetic plan for safely anesthetizing the mother will be presented.

This course will discuss infectious agents that pose a risk to the Anesthesiologist. Within this discussion a review of protective gear will also be covered and methods to minimize risk.

This refresher course will focus in depth on the clinical challenge of providing lung isolation (= lung separation) for cases requiring one-lung anesthesia. It will begin with a conceptual framework and emphasize relevant anatomy, techniques, and devices used to reliably achieve lung isolation. (Ventilation will not be covered.)