Anesthesia Key

The motor unit is the functional contractile unit and is composed of a single myelinated α motor neuron and all muscle fibers that receive innervation from this single neuron. Motor…

Intravenous Fluid Types Crystalloids Crystalloids are fluid solutions containing ion salts and other low-molecular-weight substances. Crystalloids can be categorized based on their tonicity or osmotic pressure of the solution with…

Standardization of heparin potency is based on in vitro comparison with a known standard. A unit of heparin is defined as the volume of heparin-containing solution that will prevent 1…

Blood products are administered as therapeutic agents in perioperative management. Despite guidelines, most physicians either have not read the guidelines or have difficulty following them. Clinicians often resort to empiric…

o2 = CO × CaO2 where O2 is equal to oxygen delivery, CO represents cardiac output, and CaO2 is the O2 content of arterial blood. In a 70-kg person, oxygen…

Hemostasis and History The term hemostasis essentially means to stop bleeding and refers to the physiologic process that keeps blood within damaged blood vessels, the opposite of hemorrhage. Multiple mechanisms…

Exogenous Pathway In the small intestine, bile emulsifies dietary fat and cholesterol, whereas lipase excreted by the pancreas hydrolyzes triglycerides. The intestinal endothelium takes up these products by endocytosis and…

Heparin rebound can occur after initial reversal and is generally observed 2 to 3 hours after the first dose of protamine, when the patient is in the intensive care unit.24…

Management of essential hypertension includes alteration in lifestyle and diet (smoking cessation, weight reduction, increased physical activity, salt restriction) and use of medications. Most commonly, a thiazide diuretic is the…