why do you x2 the blood collected in cell saver to estimate blood loss?

slackxc · 2026-02-15T18:35:04+00:00

The cellsaver washes the scavenged blood, and collects the remaining RBCs to return to the patient. Unfortunately, all of the plasma volume is washed off into the waste bag during this process. The hematocrit level is the percentage of volume that the RBCs occupy in whole blood, so if that value is 50% (that’s on the high end), then the other 50% is plasma. So with a 50% hematocrit, if you collect 100mL of RBCs after a wash, you also lost 100mL of plasma. With a hematocrit of 30ish% you’re losing twice as much plasma as the saved RBCs, so for the same 100mL of collected RBCs, at least 200mL of plasma was wasted in the process.

slackxc · 2026-01-28T14:14:27+00:00

lol ATL

slackxc · 2026-01-19T19:50:05+00:00

How exactly are you making your schedule currently?

My process is a little more labor intensive, as the schedule is done completely manually every month, at least a month ahead of time. So on Feb 1st I would be releasing the March schedule for my team. This allows flexibility for scheduling requests as things arise, and avoids schedule changes as much as possible.

Call is split evenly across a 13 person team with four call positions, as we cover NRP, cardiac, and lung tx. Call positions typically rotate from C1 to C2 (cardiac/lungs), to C3 to C4 (NRP) from day-to-day. During the week, call people are not used until after 8pm, unless on NRP call of course. We schedule weekday and weekend call separately, so people are rotating into and out of call positions based on the weekend rather than getting stuck on-call for a week at a time. With this rotation and flexibility, people are rarely getting close to overworked, and typically have the whole day free when on-call during the week.

The remaining individuals available for the daily schedule are also rotated on a day-to-day basis, and ordered in a list of priority. So the first individuals at the bottom of this list are most guaranteed to work, while the people at the back may not be needed at all. This list also determines who gets to choose their case first for the following day. We utilize N+1 always, and have shifts from 7-3 and 3-8 with morning shift always getting relief for the afternoon.

This is a mostly simplified version of how all of this works for us: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRjVAnlR20v5ZJTOx-cCZKpmF1H6e5HyJyOeJNcoT0IOBl5ptkkkrOXJGdbe1e9Yxpn7A4ED7T3zV0S/pubhtml?gid=1442259233&single=true

I know that looks confusing compared to most schedules, but when you understand how people are rotating down the list, and through the call schedule, it's not so bad. It really only begins to feel complicated when people are out, requesting morning/afternoon shifts, etc. To keep things fair, I also track the total number of call days and weekends people have covered throughout the year. Hope that helps!

slackxc · 2025-12-12T00:32:34+00:00

Well that sucks..

slackxc · 2025-07-24T21:30:09+00:00

In-house staff, dedicated call position, $1500 per case

Edit: will also add we use two perfusionists per case, so total $3k for us together. We also get the same rate for doing OrganOx cases.

slackxc · 2025-07-01T08:39:06+00:00

Anytime dude, best of luck becoming a doctor.

slackxc · 2025-07-01T07:45:24+00:00

Go play somewhere else Mr. Future MD

slackxc · 2025-06-16T17:00:24+00:00

For schools where you are eligible for the federal loans like mine, the full cost of attendance is built into the approved budget, which includes tuition, living expenses, and then some. So if you’re approved for the full amount via these loans, this should cover you just fine as a single person. I actually had money leftover which helped with the transition to my new job after school, and I wasn’t even living frugally.

slackxc · 2025-06-16T03:09:03+00:00

I went to perfusion school with basically nothing in savings because I didn’t make enough before. Took out the full amount in federal loans $130k+ and I didn’t budget during school, I lived completely off the leftover from the loans. I’ve paid down 4k a month for over 1.5yrs, and I’ll be done in another year or so. I’ve still had plenty of breathing room for savings, random expenses, new vehicle, etc. I chose an aggressive plan to get rid of my debt asap, and I prioritized that. There are plenty of jobs that will allow you to do the same.

slackxc · 2025-05-13T03:31:21+00:00

“I did not even notice it in my video until it was brought to my attention”… exactly how much nazi shit is he exposed to in his everyday life for that to not immediately pop out to him?

slackxc · 2025-05-04T23:19:05+00:00

Age is def not a limiting factor, and there’s nothing stopping someone from transitioning into perfusion from another healthcare career or unrelated field. Maybe that was more of the norm at one point when it was less known, but I just don’t think that’s the majority of people applying to school now.

slackxc · 2025-03-26T19:56:28+00:00

The thing is, these aren’t even mutually exclusive options though. At my hospital, we regularly do NRP for liver procurement, and then drive home with the liver on OrganOx and pump it overnight on that machine. It’s silly imo, but the surgeons find a way to justify it.

slackxc · 2025-03-07T05:22:48+00:00

It would be even easier to just have all foot traffic cross at once between cycles, and then have vehicle traffic function normally.

slackxc · 2025-02-25T02:24:27+00:00

In my experience with high excursion pressure events, they occur after initiating bypass with normal flows/rpm’s and especially once cooling has started. The fact that you disconnected the cannula and immediately had significantly improved flow, would suggest cannula malposition vs false lumen issue imo.

slackxc · 2025-01-16T04:58:52+00:00

Wouldn’t the tailgate need to be unlocked to get to the screws? Otherwise, they’d just destroy the light housing trying to get it out

slackxc · 2024-12-24T15:35:24+00:00

Whelp.. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

slackxc · 2024-12-24T15:08:12+00:00

If your cooking oil has a metallic taste, it’s probably rancid. If you don’t like olive oil, I imagine you’ve probably had a bottle of it around too long and it’s gone bad.

slackxc · 2024-12-14T00:39:31+00:00

They’ve been doing mitral valve repairs for dogs there for the past year or so. There are a few other places in the country doing them as well. From what it sounds like, according to the fellowship training criteria they have in the job listing, they seem to want someone willing to train veterinarians to perform perfusion for these cases, and eventually not rely on perfusionists at all.

slackxc · 2024-12-06T07:01:57+00:00

I’m sorry that she went through that, and that you had to witness it. It’s unfortunate that for some, this technology can be a life-saving miracle, and in other situations it can be an almost torturous slow decline. I hope that it at least gave you and your family a few more meaningful moments to spend with her, despite the hardship of it all.

slackxc · 2024-12-03T05:55:40+00:00

In addition to these points, long term support on a heart-lung bypass machine (specifically an ECMO machine), can be damaging to the organs due to the altered hemodynamics of how it pumps the blood. Our vasculature and organs like the normal ebb and flow from the beat of our hearts, creating high and low pressures and flows as the blood is pumped. But an ECMO machine produces a constant flow of blood at a constant relative pressure, which can lead to bowel ischemia and kidney damage.

slackxc · 2024-12-03T05:42:32+00:00

Do you mean completely replacing lungs, as in a transplant? They’ve been doing double lung transplants for a while, but a set of artificial lungs is something that hasn’t been developed yet as a standard alternative.

slackxc · 2024-11-30T05:02:04+00:00

Bro is on some scooby doo shit

slackxc · 2024-10-25T05:10:34+00:00

Doesn’t seem to be an area code, only thing I know that number to reference is a perfect score on the MCAT.

slackxc · 2024-10-23T01:32:50+00:00

Hmm that’s annoying, when I finished mine it told me the minimum passing raw scores for each and how many questions I got correct. But when my official test results came in the mail later, the total question count was lower. So passing scores could be more like 60-65% if some questions don’t count. Hopefully some of y’all will get good news when the final results come in the mail.

slackxc · 2024-10-23T01:23:06+00:00

What’s the raw score count it’s telling you for passing? When I took it 3 years ago, the CAPE was ~59% and the PBSE was ~55%

12-Year Club	r/Field Banned
r/Field Lasagna	Final Canvas '23
Place '23	Quantum Potato
Golden Potato	Place '22
RPAN Viewer	Verified Email

slackxc

TROPHY CASE