If you are interested in or have questions about anesthesia, whether you are a patient, the loved one of a patient, or a medical professional, you will find Dr. Friedberg’s insights interesting and useful.
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Page 54 of the August 10th issue of People Magazine cited Dr. Barry L. Friedberg as an anesthesia expert who asserts that propofol is extremely safe as long as you use a brain monitor.
In keeping with the philosophy of the Goldilocks Anesthesia Foundation (which does not yet have its own blog), readers please take note that no specific maker of brain monitor was advocated.
Wednesday, July 22nd, I did a one hour radio interview show with Pat Benjamin on WNJC 1360 AM which streamed live on www.wnjc1360.com as well. Cool.
When I get a copy of the show, it will get posted to my web site.
Friday, July 24th, on my way to Cedars Sinai in LA to give an educational talk to Ron Wender’s anesthesia residents, I was feeling very good about my efforts to disseminate the PK message. As I wondered what else could possibly happen to make this week any better than it already had been, my cell phone went off &…
a reporter from People Magazine called to interview me for medical information about propofol in an article, possibly about Michael Jackson, for the Aug 11th issue.
At least he said he was on deadline.
Wow! That’s a hell of a week!
When it rains, it pours.
Wishing all of you continued success in your endeavors and as much joy as I am having in mine,
Barry
Hear Dr. Barry Friedberg, Champion of Anesthesia Patient Safety,
LIVE
on Pat Benjamin’s Radio Show, “The Independent Voice”
this Wednesday, July 22, at 4:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time/ 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time
on WNJC 1360 AM
& streaming live on the Internet at www.wnjc1360.com
When it rains, it pours.
No, not Morton salt…PK anesthesia’s 17 year ‘overnight’ success story.
Last week was a banner week.
I submitted, within the requested deadline, my chapter, Anesthesia for Cosmetic Surgery in the Post Bariatric Patient, for Strauch B, Herman CK: ‘The Encyclopedia of Body Sculpting in the Massive Weight Loss Patient.’ Thieme Medical Publishers, New York, due out this year!
My interview with Connie Jennings in Plastic Surgery Practice came out in the July 2009 issue in the same week as my letter to the editor of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) Newsletter Spring 2009 (see ‘About PK Information for Physicians,’ Letters to the Editor). In addition to these wonderful things, Christian Apfel just had Nausea and Vomiting after Office-based Anesthesia chapter published in August 2009 Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology, again citing my seminal 1999 PK paper for its 0.6% PONV rate!
When I called the legendary Dr. Ron Wender, past president of the CA Medical Board (among many other honors), to congratulate him on assuming The Doctors’ Company director’s position vacated by the late Dr. Ann Lofsky, he invited me to give a PK talk to his anesthesia residents at the upscale Cedars Sinai Hospital of Los Angeles. His program is affiliated with the UCLA residency chaired by Dr. Patricia (don’t call her ‘Patty’) Kapur who trained under my chief, Dr. C. Philip Larson, Jr. Those of you who may have seen my book, ‘Anesthesia in Cosmetic Surgery,’ may have noted ‘Phil’ was kind enough to write a very nice introduction for it.
Dr. Wender also informed me that he was on the Board of Directors of the AAAASF, the plastic surgeons’ office surgery accreditation organization. With a great deal of luck, this may give me a chance to present my case for brain monitoring to improve office-based anesthesia safety to their Board.
Quite a week. When it rains, it pours. Stay tuned.
While at the 2009 annual SAMBA meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, I had the pleasure of exchanging autographed copies of our respective books with noted anesthesiologist, ‘Real Age’ Mike Roizen and speaking with him, as well.
The new book, ‘You Being Beautiful,’ he co-authored with cardiac surgeon, Mehmet Oz, dated May 25, 2009, arrived the end of the month.
Both Mike and Mehmet have appeared on ‘Oprah’ many times. ‘Dr. Oz’ will have his own show this fall, much like Dr. Phil got his own show by her sponsorship. I wish him the very best.
Today, Larry King had a book signing in Huntington Beach that I got to attend. After he autographed his book for me, I presented him an autographed copy of ‘Anesthesia in Cosmetic Surgery.’
At first, he seemed a bit surprised, as if not many people gave him things at his book signings.
He quickly recovered.
Then he asked, ‘Did I do the surgery or the anesthesia?’ I said, ‘The anesthesia.’
He asked, ‘Why did I choose anesthesia?’
I said, ‘I liked to see people look better if that’s what they wanted.’
Then, I gave him my 2 X 3 inch reproduction of the Lone Ranger standing in front of his horse ‘Silver’ with a ‘silver’ bullet in the plastic bag.
He was very touched and asked why. I said, Larry King, truth, justice and the American way of life.
The entire encounter took about 15 seconds but it was a great moment to experience for me.
I wanted to share it with you.
Yesterday marked the biggest day of validation for PK (propofol ketamine) anesthesia since I began advocating it nearly two decades ago.
Little did I suspect how well my June 9th press release would be received on the world wide web, especially in comparison to my previous forays.
In the first 36 hours, nine times the visitors per hour read the entire release compared to the previous one.
As I wrote in the release, postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) does not kill you. It only makes you wish you were dead.
For those of you who do not know who Christian Apfel is, he is a very distinguished anesthesiologist. He is an MD, PhD researcher and clinical anesthesiologist who has published his work in many professional journals and books.
In 2004, Dr. Apfel published his PONV work in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), an accomplishment very few anesthesiologists have ever done. (The NEJM is primarily a journal for internal medicine specialists.) Dr. Apfel is, without question, the world’s foremost authority in the field.
For several years on the international speaking circuit, Dr. Apfel has cited my 1999 PK anesthesia publication as a positive example of how to eliminate PONV by not giving either of the two major causes of the problem in the anesthetic – inhalational agents (i.e. ‘stinky’ gases) or intravenous opioids (i.e. narcotics). He further said if one does use those two classes of drugs that using anti-vomiting drugs was of little usefulness.
Having him cite the same 1999 PK anesthesia publication in his PONC chapter in the most respected and most cited anesthesia textbook, Miller’s ‘Anesthesia,’ is just about the greatest accolade PK anesthesia could ever hope to receive.
However, if the public hopes to effect some change in anesthesia providers’ practices from this validation, they need to bring a copy of the press release with them when they have their preoperative consutlation with their surgeon and insist on having the information passed along to the anesthesia staff.
