One should determine whether the AAA repair was an emergency procedure, whether an endoluminal approach was attempted, and what the complications are.
The complications may be as follows:
In order to pick these up, a thorough examination is required. One cannot avoid doing a reasonably detailed neurological exam, to look for damage to the central nervous system.
Previous hot cases with this sort of theme to them can be found below.
The standard introductionAsk examiners about turning up the lights The environmentThe physical examinationThe details of this section can be seen in the opposite column. The obs and investigationsThe Presentation"His recovery from AAA reapir is complicated by the following organ system failures..." |
The Physical Examination in Brief DetailAsk the examiners to sit the patient up Ask the examiners about any language barriers
Ask examiners to lay the patient flat. |
A pacing box?
Sensitivity and pacing threshold may not be relevant.
One can ask the examiners the following questions:
One should ask about the following parameters:
One should ask to look at the pressure-volume loops.
There may be surgical drains (what is in them? How much of it?). Asking how much has been coming out may be relevant in a hot case which focuses on the diagnosis of a shock state.
The pleural catheters are also interesting. One should make a mental note of whether the ICCs are on free drainage or on suction. The content of these drains could be informative, especially if one notices blood or chyle.
A CVVHDF or SLEDD process may be in progress. The savvy candidate may wish to ask the following questions:
These questions may go unanswered.
This stage is critically important. The drug and fluid infusions which are currently in progress give a clue as to what problem is currently being addressed. One should not neglect the labelled bags; the choice of antibiotics gives one some idea of where the source of sepsis is thought to be.
The presence of TPN might suggest that ileus is present, or that the bowel was damaged during the laparotomy.
Ideally, one should get the patient sitting up to 30-45°. This may not be possible. However, one should still ask for it.
Ideally, the patient should be exposed from the waist up. The candidate can then stand back and look for anything externally obvious:
Performing the GCS should be the first step, unless you notice that a neuromuscular junction blocker is among the infusions. The level of consciousness then determines how you go about examining the rest of the patient.
A traditionalist, who is examining Mr Bloggs, would approach the GCS in the following manner:
One has just performed a GCS assessment; one is still holding the hands.
Now, time to look at them more closely.
First, one should spent a second assessing whether they are warm or cold.
Then, one can focus on the nails. Nail signs are numerous and deserve their own page.
In brief, the nail signs one could look for are as follows:
Clubbing Leukonychia
Nail lines:
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Onycholysis Koilonychia Splinter haemorrhages Nicotine stains Vertical nail ridges Horisontal nail ridges |
Done with the nails, one may want to briefly consider (and maybe even comment upon) the presence of any sort of characteristic deformities, eg. assymetrical wasting of the small muscles, or the joint changes of rheumatoid arthritis.
Next comes the pulse. While one still has both of the patient's hands, one ought to try to compare the radial pulses. It would be worthwhile to look up at the arterial line trace at this stage; abnormalities such as the widened pulse pressure of aortic regurgitation may not have been noticed until this stage.
Tone of the upper limbs
Move up from the hands. While you are still holding the hands, you can perform a sort of gross examination of tone by pronating and supinating the wrists, and by flexing and extending the elbows.
Asterixis
In the conscious patient, it may be possible to assess asterixis by asking the patient to hold both their arms up with the wrists dorsiflexed.
Cubital fossa
Examine the cubital fossa for
One should then palpate the axillary lymph nodes.
Palpate the neck:
One should not skinp on this. The AAA patient may have had a brain injury or a stroke during the procedure.
Thus, this section can be divided into three broad groups:
| The paralysed patient | The unconscious patient | The awake patient |
| Light reflex | ||
A sophisticated and detailed cranial nerve examination is desirable, but impossible within the timeframe permitted by the hot case. The following list of brief cranial nerve examination techniques is an attempt to abbreviate the formal sequence of testing to fit within
A Snellen chart is ideal, but probably will not be available.
The extubated patient should be able to read the time on the clock in the room.
One performs this test with each eye individually.
This tests CN II.
Ask the examiners to dim the room lights.
Open both eyes. Each eye is exposed to light. The opposite pupil should constrict consensually.
This tests CN II (afferent) and CN III (efferent).
The cornea (not the sclera) is touched lightly with a moistened corner of a piece of gauze.
A normal reflex is to blink.
This tests CN V (afferent) and CN VII (efferent)
The conscious patient will be able to follow the tip of the candidate's finger.
The pattern of movements should be tracing the six cardinal points: superior left, inferior left, superior center, inferior center, superior right, inferior right.
This tests CNs II, IV and VI.
Typically, this is performed by putting some pressure on the superior orbital notch.
The patient should either open their eyes or localise.
This tests CN V.
The conscious patient will be able to perform a series of grimaces to assess the bilateral motor control of facial muscles:
In the comatose patient, as the head is moved from left to right, the eyes should move in the opposite direction. A fixed unchanging gaze is a negative test; the reflex is not working.
This tests CNs III, IV, VI, and most importantly VIII.
Cold water is funneled into the patient's ear. A positive reflex consists of the eyes turning towards the chilled ear. This is a more potent stimulus for CN VIII than the oculocephalic reflex.
Now that one has finished with the upper cranial nerves, one can move on to the mouth, airway, and swallowing apparatus.
The Yankeur sucker is used to probe the posterior pharynx, on both sides. A gag reaction should result from this.
This collectively tests CN X and IX.
While on the subject of CN X, one may test the cough reflex by suctioning the trachea.
This tests CN X.
This is also a convenient time to ask about the volume and character of the secretions.
The conscious patient is asked to protrude their tongue, and move it from side to side.
This tests CN XII.
The uvula deviates away from the lesion.
This tests CN X and IX.
The conscious patient is asked to shrug their shoulders against resistance.
This tests CN XI.
Thus, the whole process should look like this:
During the cranial nerve examination, one will inevitably end up tripping over the endotracheal tube. One should note whether there is anything unusual there; for instance, is there a dual-lumen tube, or a bronchial blocker?
Palpation:
One puts both their hands on the chest to assess the symmetry of chest expansion.
Percussion:
One might wish to percuss the chest. If this is done in a slick fashion, it can be forgiven.
Changes in percussion resonance may be worth commenting on.
Auscultation:
One may begin by auscultating the apices anteriorly. Then, one should auscultate as posteriorly as possible. In a supine ICU patient, one might gain access to the contralateral chest by grabbing the opposite arm and pulling the shoulder forward, thus pulling the patient's opposite side slightly off the bed. The money is in the bases.
Palpation:
The clever candidate will make a big show of palpating both the apex and the right sternal edge.
Auscultation:
One should auscultate in the following sequence:
The various clicks and murmurs one encounters are discussed elsewhere.
For this, one should ask to lay the patient flat.
Abdominal observation
Abdominal palpation
Abdominal percussion
Abdominal auscultation
The pelvic content would have been palpated during the abdominal examination.
The more important part of this examination is the groin.
At this stage, the patient should be re-draped - cover them from the waist up, and uncover their legs.
Observation and palpation of the pelvis:
Examination of the lines
Examination of the genitals and rectum
Once one is finished with the pelvis, one should cover it again, so that only the legs are sticking out.
One should ask to remove TEDs and compression stockings.
Leg muscle tone
The best way to test muscle tone is by holding the knee. Roll the knee gently to distract the patient; then try to lift it off the bed. In the presence of increased tone, the leg will remain straight and the whole thing will lift up; with normal or decreased tone, only the knee will bend
Calf tenderness
In the conscious patient, one might be able to assess whether a gentle calf squeeze produces the characteristic pain which suggests a DVT may be present.
This brings one to the feet, and to the beginning of the neurological examination.
The feet would have already been palpated to assess their temperature, and to look for pitting oedema.
Observation of the feet
One should look specifically for changes suggestive of chronic diabetic foot disease, or chronically poor vascular supply.
Palpation of the feet
This should consist of palpating the dorsalis pedis and posterior tibial pulse.
Babinsky reflex
One should test the Babinsky bilaterally.
Clonus
One should attempt to assess clonus in both feet.
A neurological examination of this patient cannot be avoided.
If there was spinal cord ischaemia and you missed it, the examiners will be very unhappy.
Power of the muscle groups may be tested in the following sequence:
Now that one is back to the upper limb, one may as well start their reflex tests there.
The reflexes may be tested in the following order:
After testing the ankle jerk reflex, one is again back to the feet.
At this stage, with a conscious patient, one may wish to test light touch sensation.
The following order (with corresponding dermatomes) is suggested:
Ask to see the obs chart. If it is not allowed, ask for the following:
One may also wish to demonstrate an interest in the trends of any sort of advanced haemodynamic monitoring, eg. cardiac index as measured by PAC or PiCCO.
One should ask the following sorts of questions:
One needs to show an interest in the following labs:
One should always ask for the following:
You sometimes want to see the following:
"Mr Bloggs' recovering from AAA repair is complicted by[x, y, z]."
"I have come to this conclusion on the basis of the following findings: [insert clinical findings here]"
"I have also noted the following features of chronic illness [insert features of COPD, IHD, CCF, etc..]"
"I would like to confirm my diagnosis with the following investigations: [insert appropriate investigations]"
"The current management issues are as follows: [a brief list of management priorities]"
"I would approach the management of these issues in the following manner: [list of management strategies; it helps to organise this into an A,B,C,D,E approach if one has a complex multisystem problem to manage]"
Number of previous hot cases in this topic: 2
Royal Brisbane Hospital |
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Unspecified hospital |
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