Clinical Application of Respiratory Physiology and Blood Gas Analysis

Presentation Description / Summary: We all learned respiratory physiology in freshman year of veterinary school, but for most of us, it was complicated, confusing, and not very relevant to the business of curing sick patients. However, there's a lot of really important information hidden away in that painfully dry material! In this interactive session, we will re-visit the most important concepts and apply them to equine cases of respiratory disease, with a focus on correct diagnosis and mechanistically sound assessment and treatment. This interactive session may include mini-labs to be performed during the session, as well as an opportunity to practice and apply the concepts in class.

Learner Outcomes: 1. Apply the concepts of pulmonary compliance and resistance to clinical cases, with correlations to specific disease pathologies, and their diagnosis and treatment. 2. Review gas exchange at the alveolus and the oxygen-hemoglobin dissociation curve, identify mechanisms and clinical implications of mechanisms that shift the curve to the left or right. 3. Using blood gas analysis, diagnose the 5 mechanistic causes of hypoxemia (and the one cause of hypercarbia) and select specific treatment strategies.