A 65 year old woman is in your ICU post left pneumonectomy. She was admitted overnight for HDU care. You are called to see her by the nurse looking after her as she has become haemodynamically unstable during her shift.
1) Discuss the possible causes for this haemodynamic instability?
Areas of weakness identified by examiners:
Inability to clearly understand the significance of a chest drain on suction post pneumonectomy.
Disclaimer: the viva stem above may be an original CICM stem, acquired from their publicly available past papers. Or, perhaps it is a slightly altered version of the original CICM stem. Or, it is a completely original viva stem, concocted by the monstrously amoral author of Deranged Physiology for nothing more than his own personal amusement. In either case, because the college do not make the main viva text or marking criteria available, almost everything here has been confabulated. It might sound like a plausible viva and it could be used for the purpose of practice, but all should be aware that it does not represent the "true" canonical CICM viva station.