Read on Twitter
Stuff people don& #39;t often know about anaesthesiology — a Twitter thread.
It& #39;s a relatively young medical specialty — but a very large one. Surgeons simply can& #39;t do without us anymore.
Nowadays it& #39;s possible to monitor the depth of general anaesthesia, as well as how responsive the brain is to pain. This helps make accidental awareness during general anaesthesia very rare.
We no longer have to intubate everyone who is given general anaesthesia — in many cases, we can use so-called supraglottic devices which sit above the vocal cords as opposed to passing between them, making muscle relaxant drugs unnecessary for their insertion.
Ambulatory / day surgery isn& #39;t just about saving money — patient comfort is higher, recovery faster and many complications such as hospital-acquired infections and blood clots rarer with this approach.
The anaesthesia process doesn& #39;t start when the patient is wheeled into the OR — it starts way before in the form of preoperative assessment. Anaesthetists these days are risk management logisticians instead of just putting people to sleep.
It& #39;s possible to combine general anaesthesia or sedation with a nerve block.
Ultrasound has revolutionised anaesthesiology. It eliminates the effect of anatomical individual variation on the success of nerve blocks, and allows us to block nerves unaccessible with prior techniques. We can also use it to diagnose complications and to cannulate blood vessels
We& #39;re not just surgeons& #39; little helpers — we enable the surgeon to focus on doing the operation, which means that we are in charge of monitoring vital functions and correcting them, plus making sure the patient is unconscious or at least painless and comfortable.
"Anaesthesiologists probably don& #39;t need good communication skills since your patients are asleep." This is so damned wrong. We have to get them to trust us BEFORE they allow us to take over their vital functions.
Plus we meet patients during some of the most frightening and sudden and painful and odd moments of their lives — everyone gets at least a little bit nervous about having surgery. We also work with kids, dementia patients… all of them requiring different communications tactics
We have very little paperwork, which is a massive perk.
The stereotypical anaesthetist is lounging in a chair, drinking their 134th cup of coffee of the day. The coffee part& #39;s true but you should be happy when you see a relaxed anaesthesiologist — it means their patient is very stable.
Other specialties rely on us to help out when patients become critically ill, since we& #39;re trained in advanced life support and all the procedures that starting intensive care require.
The same applies to us as to surgeons: there will be complications, and if you can& #39;t emotionally handle that, this is not your specialty.
You need to be a team player who communicates, because an OR team is a team — two doctors can& #39;t do an operation alone, and in an emergency, you really need the support of all those other professionals.
We need to understand a lot about many different specialties in order to plan the best and safest anaesthesia for every patient. I use my knowledge of haematology and lung diseases, for instance, every day.
We tend to be very enthusiastic about our work. Then again, we work in a high-stress, high-risk environment, and our suicide rate is among the highest in all physicians.
