Anesthesia Key

• Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) results either from absolute insulin deficiency or from relative insulin deficiency in the setting of high levels of counterregulatory hormones stimulated by infection or other illness….

Pearls • Cortisol is a key mediator of the stress response—influencing immunity, metabolism, and modulating the transcription of perhaps 25% of the entire genome. • Relative adrenal insufficiency and critical…

• Cell death is an important physiologic homeostatic mechanism critical for host survival. • Regulated cell death pathways are evolutionarily conserved processes and include caspase-dependent (apoptosis, pyroptosis) and caspase-independent (necroptosis,…

• Unexpected and unexplained clinical deterioration in a previously healthy infant or child is an important clue to the presence of an inborn error of metabolism (IEM). • Loss of…

Pearls • The stress response is a universal, stereotypical, and integrated neurogenic, endocrine, inflammatory, and metabolic systems response with multiple feed-forward and feed-backward modulation signaling designed to maximize host survival….

Pearls • Cellular respiration is largely coordinated in the mitochondria and normally aligns energy demand with energy production. In critical illness, disruption of cellular bioenergetic homeostasis may be a final…

Pearls • Acute severe hypertension, defined as significant blood pressure (BP) elevation with or without evidence of acute hypertensive target-organ damage, requires prompt therapy to prevent and/or ameliorate further target-organ…

Pearls • The kidney is the primary elimination pathway for the majority of medications. Thus, understanding appropriate dosing for patients in acute and chronic renal impairment is imperative to avoid…