Anesthesia Mnemonics: Anesthesia is a separate specialty subject that you will study in your final MBBS year as part of a surgical paper. In India, detailed study of this subject is only available in the higher studies syllabus. But some other deemed universities and medical colleges have worked to provide anesthesiology as a separate paper. Most foreign medical universities in the US, UK, Germany, etc., give more importance to anesthesia studies. As a medical student, you have to learn and remember drugs and their usage instructions in your med school years. Whether you learn it at med school or not, you can always find the subject at the DBMCI offer package.

Anesthesia

Anesthesia is a medically induced condition where the patient is kept in a state of:

• Loss of consciousness (hypnosis)
• Loss of reflex response (no sensations)
• Complete paralysis or muscle relaxation (no voluntary or involuntary movement)
• Amnesia (no memory)
• Analgesic (no pain)

There are different types of anesthesia and a wide variety of anesthetics used during surgeries. A detailed study of anesthesia is defined as a separate subject, anesthesiology. Postgraduate specialty studies exist for the practice of anesthesiology in operations.

Types of anesthesia

Anesthesia is divided based on several criteria like the method of administration, state of the drug, and drug usage. Generally, they are classified based on the procedure and drug usage into four common types: general anesthesia, local anesthesia, regional anesthesia, and sedatives.

• General: The whole body is kept under anesthesia, e.g., for major surgeries like heart and brain surgeries.
• Local: It affects a small part of the body, e.g., around a wound, small stitches, or for minor procedures like dental treatments. It can be IV, inhalation-based, or combined.
• Regional: It affects a large part of the body, e.g., for surgeries like C-section, fracture operation, or minor surgeries. It is subdivided into spinal, epidural, and peripheral.
• Sedatives: Sedatives are mainly used to make a patient drowsy or sometimes put to sleep. Minimally invasive procedures use sedatives for the patient’s comfort and relaxation.

Some other drugs are used as topical agents like creams, ointments, or sprays. Most of them are used for analgesic purposes.

Anesthesia mnemonics

Recalling the name of every drug, usage instruction, illnesses, etc., might be tough. To make recalling and understanding various names of anesthetics easy, those in the medical field, including medical aspirants, can use mnemonics as a study strategy. Mnemonics are memorable phrases that use the first letter or part of the names in a long list of items for easy memorization. For example, you can remember a complicated list of long-acting to short-acting local anesthetics in descending order with the following phrase:

‘Delhi To Bombay Love Priyanka Chopra’

• D – Dibucaine
• T – Tetracaine
• B – Bupivacaine
• L – Lignocaine
• P – Prilocaine
• C – Cocaine

In this way, you won’t forget the group and order of these drugs. There are many more mnemonics used for remembering anesthesia.

Classification of local anesthetics

Local anesthetic (LA) agents are classified under two categories: esters and amides. Use this handy mnemonic tip for remembering:

LA’s with one ‘i’ are esters and LA’s with two ‘i’s are amides.

Esters	Amides
Cocaine	Lignocaine
Procaine	Bupivacaine
Chloroprocaine	Prilocaine
Tetracaine	Etidocaine
Benzocaine	Ropivacaine
	Dibucaine

Mnemonics in assessment

Mnemonics are not just limited to drugs; they can also be used for assessment checklists. During their pre-anesthetic visit, anesthesiologists should do the following:

• Interview the patient about medication history
• Conduct an appropriate physical examination
• Check diagnostic data like ECG, radiographs, laboratory tests
• ASA Physical Status Score

At times, even experienced doctors may miss out on some aspects of pre-anesthetic assessments. To effectively regulate and recall the steps in the pre-anesthetic visit, some well-renowned doctors invented this mnemonic – A2, B2, C2, D2, E2, F2, and G2.

• A2 – Affirmative History, Airway
• B2 – Blood hemoglobin, Blood loss estimation, Blood availability
• C2 – Clinical examination, Comorbidities
• D2 – Drugs used by the patient, Drugs used in the previous operation
• E2 – Evaluate investigations, Endpoint to take up the case
• F2 – Fluid status, Fasting
• G2 – Give Physical Status, Get consent

This work has been published in the Journal of Anesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology by Dr. Hemanth Kumar and his peers.

Airway assessment in anesthesia

ABC in anesthesiology means Airway, Breathing, and Circulation. A mnemonic for airway assessment used during the pre-operative procedure is ‘LEMON’.

• L – Look externally (facial trauma, large tongue, large incisors)
• E – Evaluate the 3-3-2 rule: (FB – finger breadths)
  • Incisor distance – 3FB
  • Hyoid-Mental distance – 3FB
  • Thyroid to mouth distance – 2FB
• M – Mallampati Score
• O – Obstruction (airway obstruction)
• N – Neck mobility (limited neck motion)

How DBMCI can help

If MBBS is tough, preparing for a medical PG degree is even more demanding than med school. To tackle these exams, most students go to coaching institutes for preparation. But unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has halted conventional coaching institute preparation – but a new era of digitized education also came up. Surprisingly, many institutes had digitized medical PG preparations even before the pandemic, like DBMCI. Its brainchild, the eGurukul app, combines excellent faculties with new technology and has made study-from-home easier. It is available for medical exams like academic exams, FMGE, NEET-PG, NEXT, and INICET.

eGurukul: Anesthesia faculty

DBMCI’s Anesthesiology Department’s departmental head is Dr. Ajay Yadav MD (Anesthesiology), a well-renowned senior consultant based in Gurugram, Haryana. He has authored the Short Textbook of Anesthesia under Jaypee Publications. To avail of his classes online and get complete clarity on this discipline through rigorous and enriching study material, subscribe to eGurukul from DBMCI, India’s oldest PG Medical Coaching Academy with a legacy of 25 years. Subscribing to their online application also gets you lecture test series, chapter-wise QBanks, faculty-assisted Q&A sessions, custom question modules, and grand tests.

Conclusion

Smart study is always better than hard work. Choosing a good study source and a well-experienced faculty service is essential for PG preparation. DBMCI’s eGurukul is your go-to solution for online preparation. The faculties use interesting techniques and modern, tried-and-tested methods to help you understand and remember the syllabus. Additionally, anesthesiology mnemonics will help you have a long-standing memory of the key terms. Use them effectively to ace your exams and for pre-operative assessments.