Accidental awareness during general anaesthesia (AAGA) is a rare but feared complication of anaesthesia. Studying such rare occurrences is technically challenging but following in the tradition of previous national audit projects, the results of the

Checklists, checklists everywhere! Love them or hate them, since the introduction of the WHO surgical safety checklist there has been a tsunami of checklists affecting clinical areas of a hospital near you.

Imagine you are sitting on the runway, waiting to take off to your holiday destination.

Children requiring urgent but simple surgery is a common place phenomenon that can sometimes wreak havoc on the best planned emergency list. Operating on children in an urgent capacity can be logistically difficult outside tertiary centres and is not

There has been an increasing realisation that the majority of complications from high risk surgeries are not due to technical failings in either the operating theatre or anaesthetic room, but from medical complications occurring out on the wards. 'Fa

Probably one of the most talked about changes in the 2015 DAS guidelines will be Plan D. Whilst on a very basic level the recommendations have not altered, the emphasis on how to practically manage a 'can't intubate, can't oxygenate' scenario are qui

Dr Chris Frerk, chair of the airway guideline group talk about the updated 2015 DAS guidelines. 11 years after the publication of the original, the new guidelines reflect technical advances in airway management over the last decade as well recognisin

Accidental awareness under general anaesthesia (AAGA) is the stuff of nightmares for patients and anaesthetists alike. Data from NAP5 has demonstrated a relatively low incidence incidence of AAGA but recommendations from the project include the use o

Traumatic brain injury carries a devastating burden of disease for both the individual patient and the population as a whole. Many patients are young and those who survive are commonly left with a significant disability. Sadly, treatment options for

Patient blood management (PBM) is a multifaceted approach to reducing allogenic blood transfusion (ABT) in the surgical population. In this podcast Professor Manuel Munoz, a haematologist from Malaga in Spain, talks to us about the way in which a PBM

Assessment, calculation and composition of replacement fluid is a fundamental tenet of anaesthetic practice. Mounting evidence from the colorectal and enhanced recovery literature shows that attention to detail throughout the perioperative period res

Whilst medical cancer therapies are increasing in their utility and efficacy, the physiological effects of intensive combined treatment regimes on patients' reserves are becoming a greater concern. It is now routine practice to combine medical and su

As with many anticonvulsants, pregabalin is enjoying an ever increasing spectrum of use. Originally licensed for the treatment of epilepsy, diabetic neuropathic pain and post-herpetic neuralgia; pregabalin has become a staple of the chronic pain arma

Millions of operations take place in the UK each year; the majority occurring without undue patient morbidity. However, dependant on the nature of the procedure, post-operative morbidity is not uncommon and we will all recall patients who have suffer

Achieving adequate gas exchange whilst minimising ventilator induced lung inury is a major challenge in intensive care. The world of ICU ventilation is rich with novel proprietary modes but so far, none have proven an outcome benefit in ARDS. Whilst

Emergency airway management in trauma patients is a complex and somewhat contentious issue, with opinions varying on both the timing and delivery of interventions. London's Air Ambulance is a service specialising in the care of the severely injured t

For anaesthetists, intravenous cannulation is the gateway procedure to an increasingly complex and risky array of manoeuvres, and as such becomes more a reflex arc than a planned motor act. For some patients however, that initial feeling of needle pe

Successful kidney transplants have been shown to improve quality of life for the recipients and dramatically reduce the cost of caring for patients with end stage renal failure. However, there is still a significant shortfall in the number of donor o

Fluid therapy is a central tenet of both anaesthetic and intensive care practice, and has been a solid performer in the medical armamentarium for over 150 years. However, mounting evidence from both surgical and medical populations is starting to dem

Post-operative cognitive decline (POCD) has been detected in some studies in up to 50% patients undergoing major surgery. With an ageing population and an increasing number of elective surgeries, POCD may represent a major public health problem. Howe

Widely regarded as champions of patient safety, it was anaesthetists who first pioneered incident reporting systems within hospital medicine. Signed in 2010, the Helsinki declaration for patient safety in anaesthesiology requires members to contribut

Opinions remain divided on the best form of post-operative analgesia following lower abdominal surgery, with an even split between those favouring epidural anaesthesia versus patient-controlled intravenous infusion. Many variations and combinations h

As a speciality, anaesthesia has long been a champion of simulation training. But whilst ever increasing numbers of simulation based courses are available, what evidence exists for the proposed advantages of this learning modality? For this podcast D

Functional MRI is an exciting but complex imaging modality that is being used with increasing frequency in anaesthesia and pain research. Understanding and interpreting studies requires some knowledge of the fundamentals of fMRI, together with the nu