For our ENT rotation (which I did in March, but never posted this), we rotated with the laryngologists at our hospital. These specialists are voice box experts. The "voice box" is the area in between the back of your throat and your trachea (which then goes to your lungs). Anesthesiologists pass breathing tubes or other devices through the voice box regularly to allow patients to breathe during surgery or if they can not breathe on their own and need hooked up to a ventilator.
In the ENT clinic I used tiny scopes that passed through the nose and was able to see clearly the vocal cords and that "voice box". Some people have abnormalities with their vocal cords or the area around them and so that can make inserting a breathing tube difficult. In clinic we were able to see all of the problems people may have with this area including polyps, cancer masses, radiation damage from other cancer they had radiated, vocal cord movement problems, smoking damaged area problems, things causing chronic cough or irritation, damage from reflux etc. In clinic we could inject the areas sometimes but other times we scheduled surgeries and while the patient was asleep we could operate and fix the problem with tiny tools.
In clinic we also managed trachs which are small tubes that are used if a patient can't breathe well on their own or if their trachea stenosed (meaning the airway just got smaller and they can't breathe well) or if other damage to the airway is preventing a person from breathing. We have a lot of trachs in the ICU and also in the operating room that we either care for / utilize in work as anesthesiologists. Photo of a trach is below.
6:00 I would go on rounds with the ENT residents
8:00 - 5:00 Clinic
Sometimes we would have surgeries after or emergent things that occurred.
Some days would be "OR days" and I would go with the ENT attendings to the operating room for procedures and help out where I could.
For other day in the life posts --- here .
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