CABG ANESTHESIA FROM PUMP TO PROTAMINE │ EP122

Welcome to the Atomic Anesthesia podcast hosted by CRNA professor Dr. Rhea Temmermand and Co-Founder Sachi Lord. On this show, you'll hear clear, clinically grounded discussions designed for nurse anesthesia residents and CRNAs who want to feel more confident in complex pharmacology, physiology, and real-world anesthesia decision-making.

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The pump, the cannulas, the cardioplegia, the drips. CABG can feel like too many moving parts to keep straight for boards. In Week 3 of our 12-week SEE/NCE series, we tie every step of the case back to one idea, myocardial oxygen supply versus demand, so the decisions finally make sense.

In this episode:

• Coronary perfusion pressure, the coronary territories and why tachycardia is the enemy
• Preoperative medications, monitoring and the hemodynamic goals for induction
• Cardiopulmonary bypass basics, heparin dosing, ACT targets and protamine, plus why you never draw up protamine ahead of time
• Cardioplegia: how it stops the heart, and antegrade vs retrograde delivery
• Separating from bypass, vasoplegia and post-bypass ventricular dysfunction
• The major complications, from bleeding and tamponade to stroke and AKI

💜 FREE DOWNLOADS: Grab your copy of customized study plans & worksheets.

• SEE/NCE Study Plan — a structured, week-by-week plan to pass your boards
• Non-Opioid Pharmacology Cheat Sheet — every non-opioid analgesic you need to know, one page
• GPCR Cheat Sheet — G-protein coupled receptors decoded for anesthesia

💜 CONNECT: 📥 Email questions, comments or topic suggestions to Rhea or Sachi at [email protected], follow us on social media, and sign up for our newsletter.

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