Atomic Anesthesia

🚀 Try the Atomic Anesthesia platform free for 3 days: Start your free trial

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.

Your fusion patient's pain gets worse every time you give more hydromorphone. Is she tolerant, or did the opioid make it worse? In Week 6 of our SEE/NCE series, we explain what changes in the nervous system when pain becomes chronic, so you can build a plan that actually works for your chronic pain patients.

In this episode:
The four steps of pain (transduction, transmission, modulation and perception) and a memory trick to keep them straight
Nociceptive vs neuropathic pain, plus allodynia vs hyperalgesia
Peripheral and central sensitization, wind-up, and the magnesium "bouncer" at the NMDA receptor
Chronic postsurgical pain, CRPS and the Budapest criteria, phantom limb pain, postherpetic neuralgia and fibromyalgia
Opioid tolerance vs opioid-induced hyperalgesia, and what to do when more opioid makes the pain worse
A perioperative plan and multimodal toolbox mapped to each step of the pain pathway

Want more content like this? Become a member of our learning platform

💜 FREE DOWNLOADS: Grab your copy of customized study plans & worksheets.
SEE/NCE Study Plan — a structured, week-by-week plan to pass your boards

💜 CONNECT: 📥 Email questions, comments or topic suggestions to Rhea or Sachi at hello@atomicanesthesia.com, follow us on social media, and sign up for our newsletter.
Mentioned in this episode:
💜 PARTNERS: The Incomologists®
https://theincomologists.com/
You work hard caring for others—let us take care of you. Whether you’re a W-2 employee or transitioning to a 1099 role, we understand the unique challenges healthcare professionals face, from insurance coverage to financial planning. That’s where we step in.
Like you, we are a team of healthcare providers who understand your needs and help you find tailored insurance plans and financial strategies without the hassle or pressure. And we’re a partner you can rely on, today and in the future.
We evaluate all available options and resources in the market to protect our clients, so contact us, and we’ll get started! - Jake Bevilacqua, CRNA (jake@theincomologists.com)

🚀 Try the Atomic Anesthesia platform free for 3 days: Start your free trial

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.

A six-level fusion, a patient prone on a frame all day, real blood loss, and a neuromonitoring team at the head of the bed. Where does your plan even start? In Week 6 of our SEE/NCE series, we break spine surgery into the pieces the boards love to test, so you can protect the eyes, the cord and the blood volume with confidence.

In this episode:
Turning prone safely, and what the prone position does to venous return, oxygenation and bleeding
Postoperative visual loss, ischemic optic neuropathy vs central retinal artery occlusion, and the six ION risk factors
Spinal cord blood supply, the artery of Adamkiewicz, and why SSEPs can miss anterior spinal artery syndrome
SSEPs vs MEPs, and how volatiles, TIVA and muscle relaxants change your signals
What to do when the signals drop, the wake-up test, blood conservation and venous air embolism
Extubation decisions and multimodal pain control after spine surgery


Want more content like this? Become a member of our learning platform

💜 FREE DOWNLOADS: Grab your copy of customized study plans & worksheets.
SEE/NCE Study Plan — a structured, week-by-week plan to pass your boards


💜 CONNECT: 📥 Email questions, comments or topic suggestions to Rhea or Sachi at hello@atomicanesthesia.com, follow us on social media, and sign up for our newsletter.
Mentioned in this episode:
💜 PARTNERS: The Incomologists®
https://theincomologists.com/
You work hard caring for others—let us take care of you. Whether you’re a W-2 employee or transitioning to a 1099 role, we understand the unique challenges healthcare professionals face, from insurance coverage to financial planning. That’s where we step in.
Like you, we are a team of healthcare providers who understand your needs and help you find tailored insurance plans and financial strategies without the hassle or pressure. And we’re a partner you can rely on, today and in the future.
We evaluate all available options and resources in the market to protect our clients, so contact us, and we’ll get started! - Jake Bevilacqua, CRNA (jake@theincomologists.com)

🚀 Try the Atomic Anesthesia platform free for 3 days: Start your free trial

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.

Your patient is mid-lobectomy, the SpO2 is sliding from 94 to 88, and the surgeon wants that lung to stay down. In this members-only Week 5 episode of our SEE/NCE series, we walk you through one-lung ventilation from tube choice to physiology to rescue. You'll leave with a stepwise plan for exactly that moment, so you know what to check first and what to do next.

In this episode:
Spill, leak and wash: the three buckets of absolute indications for lung isolation
Double-lumen tube vs bronchial blocker, and why a left-sided DLT is the go-to for both right and left chest cases
Confirming DLT position with fiberoptic bronchoscopy, and why auscultation alone misses so many malpositions
Where gas and blood go in the anesthetized lateral patient, and how hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction cuts the shunt in half
What weakens HPV, plus a lung-protective setup for the ventilated lung
A stepwise rescue plan for desaturation, including why CPAP to the nonventilated lung is the single most effective move

Want more content like this? Become a member of our learning platform

💜 FREE DOWNLOADS: Grab your copy of customized study plans & worksheets.
SEE/NCE Study Plan — a structured, week-by-week plan to pass your boards

💜 CONNECT: 📥 Email questions, comments or topic suggestions to Rhea or Sachi at hello@atomicanesthesia.com, follow us on social media, and sign up for our newsletter.

🚀 Try the Atomic Anesthesia platform free for 3 days: Start your free trial

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.

Your patient with asthma starts wheezing a minute after intubation, and you have a whole cart of drugs within reach. In week 5 of our 12-week SEE/NCE series, we build every respiratory drug around one airway smooth muscle cell, so the mechanisms, side effects and the order of treatment finally fall into place.

In this episode:
How cyclic AMP relaxes and calcium tightens airway smooth muscle, and where every bronchodilator fits
Beta-2 agonists, why a LABA never travels alone in asthma, and the "shaky, speedy, low K" side effects
Anticholinergics, methylxanthines, steroids, leukotriene modifiers and mast cell stabilizers, and when each one helps
Why propofol, ketamine and sevoflurane are friends of the reactive airway, and why desflurane isn't
The step-by-step treatment of bronchospasm under anesthesia, and the look-alikes to rule out first
Drugs that can trigger bronchospasm, from nonselective beta blockers to histamine releasers


Want more content like this? Become a member of our learning platform

💜 FREE DOWNLOADS: Grab your copy of customized study plans & worksheets.
SEE/NCE Study Plan — a structured, week-by-week plan to pass your boards


💜 CONNECT: 📥 Email questions, comments or topic suggestions to Rhea or Sachi at hello@atomicanesthesia.com, follow us on social media, and sign up for our newsletter.
Mentioned in this episode:
💜 PARTNERS: The Incomologists®
https://theincomologists.com/
You work hard caring for others—let us take care of you. Whether you’re a W-2 employee or transitioning to a 1099 role, we understand the unique challenges healthcare professionals face, from insurance coverage to financial planning. That’s where we step in.
Like you, we are a team of healthcare providers who understand your needs and help you find tailored insurance plans and financial strategies without the hassle or pressure. And we’re a partner you can rely on, today and in the future.
We evaluate all available options and resources in the market to protect our clients, so contact us, and we’ll get started! - Jake Bevilacqua, CRNA (jake@theincomologists.com)

🚀 Try the Atomic Anesthesia platform free for 3 days: Start your free trial

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.

Pulmonary hypertension can feel like a pile of numbers, groups and drug names, but board questions keep coming back to one idea: protect the right ventricle. In week 5 of our 12-week SEE/NCE series, we start with a patient on daily sildenafil whose blood pressure falls after propofol, and we show you how to recognize the RV failure spiral and what to do first.

In this episode:
The current definition of pulmonary hypertension and how wedge pressure and PVR separate precapillary from postcapillary disease
The five WHO groups, plus a memory trick to place any patient
The RV failure spiral and why systemic hypotension is so dangerous
What raises PVR (hypoxemia, hypercarbia, acidosis, hypothermia, pain) and what lowers it, including why nitrous oxide is the gas to avoid
Managing acute right ventricular failure on induction with vasopressors, inotropes and inhaled nitric oxide
Why nitroglycerin is dangerous in a patient taking sildenafil

Want more content like this? Become a member of our learning platform

💜 FREE DOWNLOADS: Grab your copy of customized study plans & worksheets.
SEE/NCE Study Plan — a structured, week-by-week plan to pass your boards

💜 CONNECT: 📥 Email questions, comments or topic suggestions to Rhea or Sachi at hello@atomicanesthesia.com, follow us on social media, and sign up for our newsletter.
Mentioned in this episode:
💜 PARTNERS: The Incomologists®
https://theincomologists.com/
You work hard caring for others—let us take care of you. Whether you’re a W-2 employee or transitioning to a 1099 role, we understand the unique challenges healthcare professionals face, from insurance coverage to financial planning. That’s where we step in.
Like you, we are a team of healthcare providers who understand your needs and help you find tailored insurance plans and financial strategies without the hassle or pressure. And we’re a partner you can rely on, today and in the future.
We evaluate all available options and resources in the market to protect our clients, so contact us, and we’ll get started! - Jake Bevilacqua, CRNA (jake@theincomologists.com)