Basic Science for Anaesthetists

Sylva Dolenska was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia and attended medical school at Charles University, Prague. After moving to Britain in 1982, she trained as an anaesthetist, and has been a consultant since 2000. She is currently Consultant Anaesthetist at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, and has also acquired the KSS Deanery Certificate in Teaching. Her other key professional interests are airway management and obstetric anaesthesia.

Part I. Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Anaesthetic Apparatus: 1. Gas compression, relationship of volume, pressure and temperature; 2. Real gas compression; 3. Flow and resistance; 4. Heat, vaporization and humidification; 5. Simple mechanics 1: mass, force, pressure; 6. Simple mechanics 2: work and power; 7. Mathematical concepts; 8. Exponentials 1: the curves; 9. Exponentials 2: properties of exponential decay curve; 10. Descriptive statistics; 11. Presentation of data; 12. Receiver operating characteristic curve; 13. Gas supply and pressure; 14. The circle system; 15. The Mapleson A (Magill) breathing system; 16. T-pieces; 17. Lung filling with automatic lung ventilators; Part II. Clinical Measurement: 1. Basic measurement concepts; 2. Electromanometers, frequency response and damping; 3. Pulse oximeter principle; 4. Oxygen content and oxygen tension measurement; 5. Capnography; 6. [H+], pH and its measurement; 7. Principles of measurement of volume and flow in gases and liquids; 8. Cardiac output measurement by thermal dilution technique; 9. Measurement of the mechanical properties of the chest; 10. Lung volumes and their measurement; Part IIIa. Physiology: the Cardiovascular System: 1. The cardiac cycle and the intravascular pressure waveforms; 2. Cardiovascular effects of intermittent positive pressure ventilation; 3. Control of cardiac output, regulation of cardiac function; 4. Cardiac cycle: pressure-volume relationships; 5. Blood pressure and blood volume relationship; 6. Cerebral blood flow; 7. Coronary circulation; Part IIIb. Physiology: The Respiratory System: 1. Oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve; 2. Respiratory mechanics 1: Static properties, factors affecting compliance, closing volume; 3. Respiratory mechanics 2: Dynamic properties, factors affecting resistance; 4. Ventilation-perfusion relationship; 5. Oxygen cascade, oxygen therapy and shunt fraction; 6. Gas R line, solution of the ventilation/perfusion model; 7. Ventilatory response to oxygen; 8. Ventilatory response to carbon dioxide; Part IV. Pharmacology: 1. Drug elimination; 2. Uptake and distribution of inhalational anaesthetic agents; 3. Pharmacodynamic effects of drugs; 4. Minimum alveolar concentration and lipid solubility; 5. Receptor types, molecular action of anaesthetics; 6. Context sensitive half-time.