Crepitus

64 min • 6 september 2020

The most cynical surgeons describe anesthesiology as 99% boredom, and 1% sheer terror. Crepitus is about the 1%.

In this true story, a 57-year-old woman is administered general anesthesia for a “routine” knee arthroscopy, and the case rapidly devolved into the 1%. How can a routine knee arthroscopy go so wrong? In about a million and a half different ways. This is one of them.