Course Information

After attending this course, participants will be able to:

• Define the lower limit of human cerebral blood flow autoregulation and its relevance to hemodynamic management during anesthesia.
• Discuss the rationale use of brain function monitors in the prevention of awareness.
• Discuss the avoidance of the most common major causes of morbidity and mortality in pediatric anesthesia.
• Describe the techniques available to the clinician for achieving intraoperative cerebral protection.
• Describe an approach to the preoperative assessment of pulmonary function in patients scheduled for thoracic surgery.
• Describe the evaluation of pulmonary function prior to lung resection surgery.
• Describe contemporary techniques for lung isolation and one-lung anesthesia.
• Discuss the potential for anesthetic agents to cause toxicity to the nervous system of neonates and infants.
• Describe the relative advantages of crystalloids and colloids for the patient undergoing major surgical procedures and/or intensive care.
• Discuss approaches to the management of pediatric patients with sleep apnea, prematurity and URIs.
• Discuss the physiology and pharmacology relevant to the use of the alpha2 agonist dexmedetomidine in the operating room.
• Describe approaches to common pediatric emergencies including the bleeding tonsil, the open eye, airway foreign bodies, pyloric stenosis.
• Discuss what is known about the etiology and prevention of post operative visual loss after spine surgery.
• Discuss the pros and cons of the use of antifibrinolytics in the cardiac surgical patient.
• Discuss the pros and the cons of the use of nitrous oxide as a component of a general anesthetic.
• Describe strategies for minimizing ventilation-related lung injury.
• Describe approaches to the pediatric patient with co-existing diseases including asthma, sickle cell and cerebral palsy.
• Describe the objectives for the intraoperative management of hyperglycemia and discuss the rationale for those objectives.
• Describe the anesthetic objectives for patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy and discuss approaches for achieving those objectives.