The Anesthesia Playbook

A 31-year-old woman at 24 weeks gestation needs urgent surgery. Now every decision in your anesthetic has another layer. When does aspiration risk become significant? When should you use left uterine displacement? How does fetal viability change your monitoring? Which vasopressor would you reach for when the blood pressure falls? And if your pregnant patient arrests in the OR, when does resuscitat...

A 38-kilogram patient. A recent coronary stent. An ankle fracture that can’t wait much longer. At an outpatient surgery center, the plan seems straightforward: assess the cardiac risk, develop an anesthetic plan, control her postoperative pain, and get her safely home. But a few subtle clues begin to change the case. In this episode of The Anesthesia Playbook, we work through the case in real time...

What could go wrong during a routine sedation case? A patient presents for a seemingly straightforward procedure. She’s appropriately fasted, has no obvious aspiration risk factors, and the plan is simple: propofol sedation, spontaneous ventilation, and local anesthesia from the surgeon. Then everything changes. In this episode of The Anesthesia Playbook, we work through a case inspired by a real...

A 45-year-old woman with poorly controlled Graves disease presents for thyroidectomy with a massive goiter, positional dyspnea, and subtle stridor. The question isn’t just how you’re going to secure the airway—it’s what could happen if you take away the things currently keeping it open. In this episode of The Anesthesia Playbook , we work through the case from pre-op evaluation to the PACU. We’ll...

In this episode of The Anesthesia Playbook , we walk through a real-world case of aortic stenosis anesthesia for a patient undergoing shoulder arthroplasty in the beach chair position . This case highlights the critical importance of hemodynamic management, myocardial oxygen supply and demand, and cerebral perfusion in patients with fixed outflow obstruction . We break down: How to manage aortic s...

On this episode of The Anesthesia Playbook , we break down one of the most important and high-yield patients in obstetric anesthesia: the preeclamptic patient. This case-based episode walks through a real-world scenario, from labor epidural placement to urgent Cesarean section, while teaching the physiology, anesthetic decision-making, and complication management you need to understand to take car...

Studies showing benefit of using "individualized PEEP" which is often higher than convention. Another study showing benefit of individualized PEEP in abdominal surgeries. In this episode, we walk through a real-world case of an obese patient undergoing a robotic hysterectomy, and why these cases can quickly become a ventilation challenge. Obesity, pneumoperitoneum, and steep Trendelenburg create a...

How should you actually use The Anesthesia Playbook? In this episode, we break down the method behind the podcast, and how to use it to improve your clinical thinking in the OR. Because the problem isn’t effort. It’s the system. Most anesthesia learning is built around textbooks and isolated topics. But real anesthesia doesn’t happen one chapter at a time. It happens in patients with multiple como...

Welcome to The Anesthesia Playbook —a modern, case-based approach to learning anesthesia. If you’ve ever struggled to get through long textbook chapters… felt unprepared walking into the OR… or found yourself memorizing facts without truly understanding how to apply them...then this is for you. Because the truth is, anesthesia isn’t learned one chapter at a time. It’s learned in real patients. Rea...