#515: Cardiogenic Pulmonary Edema

A patient is stable going into surgery and comes out of anesthesia fine. Twenty minutes later in the PACU, she's gasping for air, her neck veins are bulging, and she's coughing up pink, frothy sputum. Yikes! What just happened? And why did it happen so fast?

In this episode, I'm breaking down cardiogenic pulmonary edema, including:

- A walk through the actual blood flow pathway that explains why pressure backs up into the lungs in the first place

- Two distinct processes that can cause cardiogenic pulmonary edema:

☝️ the classic fluid overload picture <-- you probably learned about this in school

✌️ vascular failure <-- a pattern less commonly taught, where a patient can develop flash pulmonary edema without carrying any excess fluid at all.

- Common signs and symptoms

- Priority assessments

- Key tests utilized to evaluate the condition

- Treatments

- Follow-up education

- References to the patient described above, so you can see exactly how her history, her labs, and her imaging all tell the same story once you know what you're looking at.