Cite this post as:
Scott Weingart, MD FCCM. The Psychologically Difficult Airway by George Kovacs. EMCrit Blog. Published on June 6, 2017. Accessed on March 20th 2025. Available at [https://emcrit.org/emcrit/psychologically-difficult-airway/ ].
Financial Disclosures:
The course director, Dr. Scott D. Weingart MD FCCM, reports no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies. This episode’s speaker(s) report no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies unless listed above.
CME Review
Original Release: June 6, 2017
Date of Most Recent Review: Jul 1, 2024
Termination Date: Jul 1, 2027
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Great talk and always a pleasure listening to Kovacs!
Thanks Sam
Fantastic talk. And we do really need better simulators (or more cadavers – I guess lack of the first might eventually provide the second)
super talk, thanks.. this encapsulates what I’ve learned through failure and stress
Exceptional talk – inspired some ideas I can integrate into the culture here.
I have an addition to your presentation at 20-24 minutes. When you experience that fight-or-flight reflex, your pupils dilate and you can’t focus light on what’s right in front of you. The result is that you can’t read a medication vial that you’re holding, or manipulate equipment like changing defib paddles to a pediatric size or connecting the syringe to a luer lock.
I offer this as a practical example of the effects that can happen if you don’t desensitize yourself by practice.
That’s interesting, George. Do you have any literature or a reference for that? I would love to read it and add it to my pile of papers on stress physiology.
you can search for pupillometry and task difficulty and you’ll get a bunch. I think it is related less to stress and more to a proportional representation of cognitive saturation.
very cool. and very incredible. thank you scott, and thank you dr kovacs.
tom
By twin brother who was abused by the system that is in place to take care of him and was not even needed at all, tortured him from age 17 until 19 where in an emergency due to years of neurological care and medical care neglect, the ambulance that took him very close to the hospital fucked up, he wasn’t breathing and instead of do more, they let him die and lied and the doctor in charge of him when he arrived was pre-planned in order to cover it up and not get in trouble by having the hospital get… Read more »