ICUedu is an educational podcast series focused on emergency critical care fundamentals, created and hosted by Dr. Sara Crager, an emergency physician and intensivist.
With clinical appointments at UCLA and Antelope Valley Medical Center, Sara brings a wealth of experience to the series, aiming to demystify complex critical care concepts through concise, high-yield discussions.
Practical framework for decoding complex acid-base problems using primary disorder, compensation, and hidden gaps. Key teaching point: Use ‘pH → primary → gap → compensation’ as a 4-step method.
How to diagnose and manage vasoplegia in the critically ill, including pressor strategies, pitfalls, and rescue therapies. Key teaching point: A hyperdynamic, underfilled LV on echo should prompt consideration of vasoplegia—but only after ruling out other causes.
Five high-impact diagnostic assumptions that lead to missed complications in critically ill patients—explored through an ICU lens. Key teaching point: Don’t chase a sepsis diagnosis based on lactate alone.
A structured sepsis survey for deteriorating patients: from bedside re-evaluation to antimicrobial decisions and source control. Key teaching point: Think like trauma: primary, secondary, imaging, then decisions.
An expert-level rethink of cardiac arrest: go beyond ACLS to prioritise brain perfusion, reversibility, and heart rebooting. Key teaching point: If you think they're dying, start compressions. You can always stop.
Three cases, three mistakes: from missed agitation to delayed CRRT and a hidden airway disaster. Learn the cognitive traps and practical fixes. Key teaching point: Agitation is often hypoxia until proven otherwise.
Managing wide complex tachycardia in an unstable SCAPE patient: from diagnostic uncertainty to rhythm control. Key teaching point: Use phenylephrine if worried about BP drop during sedation for cardioversion.
Three ABGs from the same COPD/obesity hypoventilation patient reveal how chronic and acute processes intersect. Learn to spot compensation and masked acidosis. Key teaching point: Know your patient’s usual ABG—'normal' isn’t always normal.
Three ICU cases reveal how bias, overload, and tunnel vision delay diagnosis. Learn from missed Fournier’s, misread flutter, and glossed-over gallbladder. Key teaching point: Pain out of proportion is a red flag even in trauma.
Move beyond MAP and shock categories. This episode breaks down perfusion pressure into forward, backward, and external forces for functional bedside application. Key teaching point: MAP obsession leads us astray—tissue perfusion matters more.
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