I love the world of social media. It was through the medium of Twitter that I was able to connect with James DuCanto ()who is an anesthesiologist at Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin. Gavin Denton () and I picked his brains about some of the pitfalls in intubation especially for those not so experienced but who may well still find them in a situation where they may have to perform the task.
James has produced a few teaching videos around some of his ideas, some of which you can see on Minh LeCongs ()
site, so I won't reproduce them here. just follow the link.
I did ask him about cricoid pressure and his answer was interesting. If you want to hear the discussion I had with Minh about this then go listen to
Tom, one of my colleagues from the Critical Care Outreach Team and I discuss this paper and its findings reaching our own conclusions. Deferring Arterial Catheterisation in Patients with Septic Shock.
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We return to our 48-year-old patient: jaundiced, hypotensive, drowsy, and bleeding. In decompensated cirrhosis, every treatment targets a disrupted system — splanchnic vasodilation, portal hypertension, toxin accumulation, and renal hypoperfusion.Although these patients look fluid overloaded, they are effectively hypovolaemic. Start with small aliquots of balanced crystalloid, avoiding 0.9% saline. In hepatorenal syndrome or tense ascites, 20% albumin is
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In this episode, I walk through the real-world critical care management of acute decompensated alcohol-related liver disease, using a high-risk ICU case to anchor the discussion. The focus is on understanding the underlying physiology—portal hypertension, rebalanced haemostasis, hepatic encephalopathy, infection, and hepatorenal syndrome—and translating that physiology into clear first-hour priorities at the bedside. Listeners are
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