The FlightBridgeED Podcast

This is the fifth of a special podcast series on obstetric critical care.  I am joined on this series by Dr. Elizabeth Garchar, MD, FACOG.  She is an OB/GYN and Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) specialist who has a particular interest in obstetric critical care.  She is also unique in that she flies regularly with our critical care transport teams as a retrieval OBGYN/MFM and acts as one of our Assistant Medical Directors for the flight program.

The topic of this podcast is Amniotic Fluid Embolism (AFE).  Another rare, but devastating disease that can often progress rapidly to cardiac arrest.  In this podcast, we go through the epidemiology and definition/diagnosis of the disease.  We also go into depth on underlying pathophysiology and the current hypotheses on what causes AFE.  Spoiler alert: it’s not as simple as an embolism of amniotic fluid.   Then we review the management, specifically focusing on the management of acute right heart failure in the setting of abrupt and pronounced pulmonary hypertension. Finally, Dr. Garchar and I deliver some spaced repetition and go over the management of maternal cardiac arrest, in the likely event that AFE progresses to that point.

References

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