ENT Anesthesia

Finally, I'm back in the general operating room pool on a rotation specifically for ENT anesthesia. It's actually been 6 months since I last did general adult anesthesia; I've had two months of cardiac, two months of ICU, and two months of pediatrics, and it's a weird feeling stepping back into the main ORs where I spent the bulk of my first year. Fortunately, it's been a smooth transition; so much of anesthesia has become muscle memory that although some things are initially rusty, it comes back quickly. This month I'm on a rotation to learn techniques for the difficult airway. ENT surgeries have some unique characteristics including sharing the airway with the surgeons, using highly-potent opioid infusions, managing difficult intubations, and facilitating a smooth extubation and rapid recovery. It's been great being introduced to advanced airway techniques and medications I usually don't pick up, and I think I'll learn a lot in the next four weeks.