Transorbital Intubation - An Artful Airway

Just when I thought the days of art in medicine were extinct,  the above image made it's appearance in my email courtesy of a long time reader. This  patient had extensive facial surgery for an invasive tumor and her maxilla and eye were sacrificed in the process. In a subsequent procedure, the creative anesthetist used this artsy approach in securing her airway. Instead of passing the endotracheal tube pharynx-larynx-trachea, the path was eye socket - pharynx, (or what's left of it) - trachea. Very clever, but how in blue blazes can the pilot balloon be visualized when it's deep inside the patient's face. Art in surgery always has a down side

Whippersnapperns live in a data driven, evidence based world of healthcare, but I know of  a different world where art played a dominant role  like the transorbital airway gambit shown above. Medical arts buildings dotted the landscape and old school surgeons pulled the art card to explain complications or pathology beyond their understanding. I do think the "medical arts" terminology when applied to physician offices  was so much less pretentious than the "institute" label trending today.

Unlike the group practices of today, most vintage surgeons were solo practitioners operating with minimal oversight. These surgeons of bygone years shared something in common with Picasso and Monet, they worked alone and relied on their ingenuity as much as scientific principle. "Based on empirical reasoning, I'm going to take out this lymph node over here and maybe the one over there too," was a typical intraoperative response.

Artful surgery could carry a heavy price for the patient. Someone cobbled together a procedure to "cure" Parkinson's Disease that involved harvesting cells from the difficult to access adrenal glands and injecting  them intracranially in hopes they would generate some much needed dopamine. The aggressive surgery resulted in lots of complications with poor long term results. Artful, but dangerous and usually ineffective.

A more benign example of surgical artistry involved the use of surgical instruments. Orthopedic surgeons found a novel use for Satinsky vascular clamps in that they were perfect for nabbing errant bone chips. I've written about the creative use for grooved directors in a previous post. They make great tongue depressors, templates for duct filets, guiding suture, and as mini retractors. Artistry in surgery always has an unsavory component and burying the sharp prongs of a towel clip in an unsuspecting abdomen to test the level of spinal anesthesia always shivered my timbers.

Unfortunately, patient's bodies make for a poor canvas and scalpel wielding surgical artists often come up with an unintended surprise on their hands. I wonder how that patient above felt about breathing through her eye socket. Breathing is a whole lot different than seeing.

Cyclopropane Anesthesia - A Blast From the Past

Inhalation anesthesia was dominated by ether until cyclopropane made it's debut in the late 1930s. This new agent was potent and did not induce the unpleasant nausea and vomiting associated with ether. Those operating room scenes from Ben Casey or Dr. Kildare where the patient is asked to count to 10 after the anesthesia mask hit their face were classic cyclopropane inductions. Most were sound asleep by the count of 3. Cyclopropane was like magic pixie dust in an orange steel cylinder;  inhale it and almost instant anesthesia, back on room air, and presto... near immediate emergence. There was only one problem, cyclopropane was explosive and had the potential to turn just about any cysto room into a wiener roast.

Every old time operating room suite  had a cyclo room that was heavily modified to avert cyclopropane detonation. I always liked the way cyclo room sounded when pronounced, it had an eerie Alfred Hitchcock feel to it because it sound so much like "psycho room." Indeed these were different sort of rooms where strange rituals and  happenings prevailed.

Cyclo rooms persisted until the early 1970s. Any new OR suite constructed post 1970 lacked an explosion proof room. The first line of defense against exposions was the elimination of statuc electricity discharge by grounding everything to a terrazzo floor which was interlaced  with conductive copper dividers. A gleaming terrazzo floor lined with glowing copper dividers was a beautiful sight.

Everything in the room was supposed to be grounded to the conductive floor. Operating room personnel wore shoes that were modified by a metallic plug smack dab in the middle of the sole and shoe covers had a conductive strip running from toe to sole. First order of business upon entering a cyclo room was testing shoe conductivity by stepping on a small bathroom scale like device. A green signal meant all was well and it was OK to proceed. The shoe testing requirement also served to exclude rubbernecking snoopers and busy body administrators. Only the personnel that really needed to be there were present. An anesthetist, 2 nurses, and a surgeon with an assistant could handle just about anything that came along.

Equipment in the OR was grounded to the floor by tiny metal chains that jingled  when the furniture was moved about. Old operating rooms were always furnished, never equipped. The anesthesia cart which was always a repurposed Sears Craftsman rolling tool chest  had double chains. Why take chances?

The other approach to explosion proofing the room was a bomb squad containment mentality. Potential sources of explosion were shrouded in a heavy steel housing. Operay overhead surgical lights had a particularly robust containment chamber that I thought resembled Russia's Sputnik satellite. I'm not so sure I would like to be laying on the table with that ominous black orb hovering  overhead. It looked spooky to me.

The electrical switch for the Operay was covered in a heavy leather boot that looked like the covering on a Mack truck gearshift. Every time I turned the overheads on, I imagined the carefree life of an open road trucker as opposed to facing up to the stressful work ahead. Oh well...at least I did not have to worry about unannounced visits from my favorite nemesis, Alice, the all knowing supervisor, always steered clear of the cyclo room.

Working in the cyclo room was always the best part of my day, and then later on, the best part of my night. On call, high risk emergency trauma surgery was the perfect venue for cyclopropane because it actually elevated blood pressure to improve perfusion. A good question was; If cyclopropane is so frequently selected for the high risk trauma patient, wouldn't it be good for the healthier patient? The limiting factor was the risk of catastrophic explosion.

I loved the peace and quiet in the cyclo room. There were no Bovies  buzzing or power tools whirring, just the quiet swish as the anesthetist went about  breathing for the patient. The brisk snip sound of straight Mayo scissors cutting ligature after ligature was almost hypnotic.  Occasionally while in the midst of a messy trauma surgery you could actually hear a vessel bleeding.

 Cyclo also had a very pleasant, gasoline like smell that always reminded me of one of my favorite high school courses, auto shop. No matter how carful the anesthetist was with holding the mask, a tiny bit of cyclo always seemed to pervade the room.

Attending anesthetists often told the residents that cyclo was to be   handled with the finesse of a violinist, not with the banging of a kettle drum. Anesthetists were also advised to keep in physical contact with the patient at all times to keep the electrical potential balanced.

Whenever I see a modern operating room furnished with enough electronics to land a 747 in a whiteout and multiple OR personnel milling about it shivers my timbers to the core. To heck about worrying about the finesse of a violinist, these rooms are the equivalent of a symphony orchestra complete with a grand piano. Cyclopropane R.I.P.

Show Me the Money and I Will Show You Why That CVP Line Stopped Transducing

It really grinds my gears when entrepreneurially minded nurses seek to monetize assorted tutorials for learning clinical skills. Theoretical nursing in an academic environment is ridiculously overpriced and I understand the plight of whippersnapperns facing exorbitant school loans, but bedside procedures should be passed along  with a sense of pride and  respect for the history of nursing. The sense of well being gained by seeing a young nurse confidently perform a procedure you showed her how to do is priceless. It's your extension in time and will bring a warm feeling to your foolish heart when you are old like me.

Image courtesy Maklay 62

Diploma schools were big on ceremony and pageantry with ascent through the nursing hierarchy. Youngsters today may have dollar signs in their eyes, but for us, the ultimate reward was that coveted pin. Dreams of walking down the aisle  with our Nightengale Lamps leading the way to receive our pins were what we thought of in troubled times. Thinking about money was distant in our minds and any mention of financial gain earned you a speedy exit from the program. It was just palin wrong headed thinking and an egregious example of putting your needs before others.

How do you unite nurses from different generations with different values? One  way was  passing on  clinical skills from experienced nurse to novice. The scrub nurse tricks of the trade that I learned from my nemesis, Alice, are precious beyond any means of monetary compensation. I didn't learn how to load a sponge stick one handed or count out ten 4X4s in a nanosecond by paying money to watch a video. No, she never smiled or encouraged me like the glad handing  nursing procedure hustlers selling their videos. Humiliation was a powerful motivator.

I shudder to think of the consequences incurred by  offering a Greatest Generation nurse money for procedure tutorials. They could survive on next to nothing because working as a nurse was a reward in of itself. Their  notion of self care was a 15 minute nap in the lounge after being called in for a middle of the night case and working 9 hours the next day. Life was meant to be difficult and nurse's were destined to a life of poverty. I admired them with unbounded abandon and was a mere sissy compared to their resolve. I wish a few of them were around to deal with today's nurse monetizers.

CVP lines were in their infancy when I was practicing and I made it my mission to learn all I could about central line procedures. Obtaining a central pressure involved a carpenter's level, a three way stop cock, and a manometer. Connecting them to a transducer opened up a Pandora's Box of problems and involved endless fiddling for a reading of dubious value. They were a real pain to deal with. I was thinking of producing a video explaining some of the pitfalls of CVP lines and possible solutions. Of course this is going to cost you, but, in all honesty, I would rather sell a kidney than profit from teaching the next generation of nurses. We are all in this together so let's pause and think about the needs  of novice  nurses before whoring out something sacred like the mastery of bedside procedures.

From the Anals of Anesthesia History

This photo was snapped in 1909 and immediately piqued my curiosity. At first glance, I guessed that this must be an old school exercise device, perhaps an inversion table or tilt table, but further investigation revealed that it's a set up for the rectal administration of ether anesthetics. This sounds like a high risk technique bordering on medical misadventure based on the flammability and mucosal irritating nature of ether. Here is what some of the physicians of the time had to say about colonic ether.

"The fact that the intestinal mucosa is especially efficient in transfer of gases to and fro from the blood, prompted the colonic administration of ether. The head of the operating table is depressed after the patient is placed on the table. The afferent rectal tube is inserted past the bulb and efferent tube. The anesthetist then opens the efferent tube to allowing bowel contents, if any to escape. The etherization should then commence by forcing the ether mixture into the bowel by pressing on the bulb until an intracolonic pressure of 20 mm Hg is obtained. Every 15 minutes the efferent tube should be opened and the cycle repeated. The colon should be inflated with oxygen after venting the superfluous ether at the conclusion of the procedure."

The prep for this anesthesia was brutal. NPO for 24 hours prior to surgery. Cleansing enemas the evening before and again in the AM prior to surgery. I was trying to deduce the rationale for the Trendelenberg (head down position) of the OR table and came up with a couple of guesses. Ether was notorious for inducing cardiac arrhythmias. An old school trick for converting arrhythmias was to place the patient in Trendelenberg and tell them to hold their breath or possibly the position helped in the retention of the ether. Who knows?

I was curious as to the nature of the ether used and learned that an ether generator was used. This was a crude vaporizer that created etherization by passing room air or oxygen through the liquid ether. Who knows what they did with the ether vapor that was vented off via the "efferent tube" but somehow I suspect that it was just vented out a window. This was a common practice many years ago and one of the reasons ORs were always on the top floor of old  hospitals.

One of the early axioms in medicine was the more primitive the procedure, the more sophisticated the lingo describing the action. That must be how the "afferent" and "efferent" rectal tubes came about. The clever old docs hijacked a term describing the autonomic nervous system and applied it to their backside buffoonery.

I don't think their notion that the intestinal mucosa is an effective means of gas exchange is accurate. "The patient is desaturating...get that rectal tube hooked up to oxygen said no one!" There is very little gas exchange along the GI tract as anyone who has erroneously intubated the esophagus knows all too well.

Although butts and gas go together like tweedle dee and tweedle dumb this procedure was inherently dangerous because ether was so flammable. Another complication was (surprise) rectal bleeding. This procedure looks more like a colitis simulator than an anesthesia agent.

Anyhow, the next time I have surgery it's going to be a spinal or regional.