By Ana Maria Crawford, MD, FASA “One of the crucial factors in patient safety is real time, reliable monitoring of patients under anesthetic,” – Grainne Harrington for BBC World Service Health Check. (Source: https://www.lifebox.org/news/lifebox-features-on-the-bbc/). Imagine providing sedation and anesthesia without knowing the patient’s oxygen saturation or seeing that reassuring end-tidal CO2 tracing on your monitor. […]

By Christine Doyle, MD, CHCI, FASA, ASA Director for California The ASA held the Annual Board Meeting over the weekend of August 17/18, at the Loews O’Hare. It was the “safest” any of us have felt at the hotel, as there were about 70 Secret Service K-9 teams at the hotel, in preparation for the […]

“Hon?” “I’m in a meeting, is this important?” “Where is the extra Narcan?” “What? Wait what do you mean, what is going on?” “I think C overdosed. I gave him the Narcan you gave this morning before you left for your meeting. He’s breathing now, but not waking up”. “You have to call 911, you […]

By Niti Pawar, MD, and Odmara Barreto Chang, MD, PhD History of Neuromonitoring The use of intraoperative electroencephalogram (EEG) dates back to 1937 when Dr. Gibbs and colleagues demonstrated that there were clinical and electroencephalogram (EEG) changes with increasing anesthetic doses, noting that “a practical application of these observations might be the use of EEG […]

By Dr. Todd Primack, Chair, Legislative and Practice Affairs Division, CSA As anesthesiologists, we are the cornerstone of safe patient care. We dedicate our careers to providing the highest standard of care, ensuring optimal patient outcomes before, during, and after surgery. However, this commitment is constantly challenged. This year alone, we faced legislation that threatened […]

By Todd Primack, DO, FASA, Chair, Legislative and Practice Affairs Division CSA leadership is engaged in an effort at the state and local levels concerning the delivery of anesthesia services in the San Joaquin Valley. Recent investigations by the California Department of Public Health and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services demonstrated that patients were […]

By Jeff Poage, MD, CSA Past President and ASAPAC Board Member In the vast realm of US healthcare, anesthesiologists stand as pillars of expertise, utilizing our skills to alleviate pain and safely navigate our patients through often stressful perioperative experiences. From routine ambulatory procedures to more complex in- patient surgeries, our commitment to patient safety […]

By Todd Primack, DO, FASA, Chair, Legislative & Practice Affairs Division This has been an extremely busy year for CSA as we have engaged in legislative and regulatory efforts on multiple fronts. This communication will attempt to catch you up on several recent developments: defeating legislation that would have recognized “Nurse Anesthesiologist Week”; unsupervised CRNA […]

By Mark Zakowski, MD, FASA, Chair, CSA Foundation for Education Board of Directors The CSA Foundation for Education was first envisioned several years ago under the presidency of Dr. Jim Moore and established with the persistent leadership of Dr. Karen Sibert.  The CSA Foundation for Education was established as a separate charitable entity to support […]