In this week’s episode, Keith and Courtney discuss the best way to utilise your ECG machine in everyday anaesthesia.

We often hear that the ECG machine gets dusted off and bought out for critical cases and is not used routinely. But if you’re not using it every day, how will you become comfortable in setting it up and interpreting the waveforms?

Using your ECG machine is more than connecting the cables to the patient and hoping for the best! We revise a little bit of the cardiac anatomy and physiology before diving in and looking at what type of electrodes can be used on different patients, the different Leads that our ECG reads (like a TV channel, you can flick through them!) and also why having the cables arranged uniformly around your patient will improve the signal.

After all, the P wave shouldn’t stand for Panic!