07 / Anaesthesia · Crisis drills
Crisis drills
13 algorithms in 5 groups, hidden one step at a time. Decide your move, then reveal the algorithm’s: reading one is not the same as being able to run one.
Cannot ventilate the intubated patient
Rising airway pressure or falling tidal volumes in a patient who was ventilating easily a minute ago
Recognise it
- The peak pressure alarm, or a bag that has become hard to squeeze.
- A capnograph that has changed shape: a shark fin, a sudden loss, or a raised baseline.
- Falling saturation, with a blood pressure that follows it down.
- Look at the chest: is it moving, and is it moving equally.
The usual mistake
Trusting the machine's numbers over the bag in your hand. A self-inflating bag off the circuit answers, in one squeeze, whether the problem is the patient or the equipment.
On the cart
Do it in order
0/61Hidden until you have committed
2Hidden until you have committed
3Hidden until you have committed
4Hidden until you have committed
5Hidden until you have committed
6Hidden until you have committed
Decide your first move before you reveal it. Rehearsing the order is the whole point: in a real crisis the failure is jumping to step four.