Current anesthesiology evidence, clinically interpreted.
Anesthesiology Journal's podcast pairs issue briefings with author and editorial conversations about studies shaping perioperative care. Its register is technical but practical, moving from trial design and physiologic mechanisms to what clinicians should reconsider at the bedside.
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Anesthesiology Journal's podcast functions as an audio extension of a research journal rather than a general medical chat show. Its center of gravity is perioperative evidence. Episodes usually begin with a specific article, then widen into clinical interpretation through conversations with study authors and editorialists. The pace is measured. The language assumes comfort with anesthesia practice, trial methods, physiologic variables, and perioperative risk. Recent episodes have examined pain during cesarean delivery under neuraxial anesthesia, including the tension between avoiding pain and avoiding unplanned general anesthesia. They have also looked at neonatal outcomes after regional versus general anesthesia for cesarean delivery, with attention to APGAR scores, respiratory support, and neonatal ICU admission. Functional capacity appears as another recurring concern, especially the gap between quick subjective assessment and more reliable risk prediction. The show is interested in practical uncertainty. TAP blocks are discussed not as a simple analgesic answer, but as a technique with limits, variability, and incomplete coverage of visceral pain. Airway episodes weigh technology against operator skill, especially in infants and difficult airway management. Sepsis coverage moves beyond a single blood pressure target toward tissue perfusion pressure, critical closing pressure, vascular tone, and microcirculatory flow. Opioid-related episodes stay clinically grounded, covering naloxone reversal and the perioperative care of patients treated for opioid use disorder. Cancer surgery anesthesia is treated through the lens of pragmatic randomized evidence, endpoint selection, and long-term outcome interpretation. The editor-in-chief format gives the show a useful scan of the issue as a whole. Featured author episodes slow down for deeper methodological and clinical discussion. The editorial voice is cautious without being evasive. Claims are framed with caveats, populations, limitations, and the need for validation when appropriate. That makes the show especially useful for specialists who need to know not just what a study found, but how much weight it should carry. It is dense, serious, and firmly professional. Its best moments come when everyday anesthesia decisions are shown to sit inside larger questions of physiology, patient experience, and surgical risk.
Made for: Physicians, anesthesiologists, perioperative clinicians, and scientists who want close coverage of research published in Anesthesiology. It is best for listeners comfortable with technical discussion of trials, physiology, and clinical risk.
What sets it apart: The show pairs journal authority with article-level conversations, so findings are placed beside editorial interpretation rather than summarized in isolation. It consistently connects methods, caveats, and bedside implications.
Audio interviews and overviews of articles covered in the journal.
Bobbi Jean Schweitzer asks where TAP blocks fall short; you hear why visceral pain remains.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, clinically grounded discussion of cesarean pain, anesthesia choices, and trauma risk.
Pain during cesarean delivery under anesthesia anchors this episode, as Jim Rathmell talks with James O'Carroll, consultant anesthetist at University College London Hospital's NHS Foundation Trust, and Ruth Landau, chief of the Division of Obstetric Anesthesia and professor of…
A measured look at why preoperative functional capacity may need more nuance than a four-MET cutoff.
Preoperative functional capacity is treated here as more than a quick bedside estimate. The episode follows Armin Valadkhani on a prospective cohort study linking preoperative functional capacity with postoperative mortality and morbidity, then turns to Duminda Wijesundara on…
A clear discussion of what TAP blocks cover, what they miss, and why technique matters.
TAP blocks can seem simple until the question turns to what they actually cover. This Anesthesiology Journal podcast brings Dr. Alparslan Turan, senior author of a Cleveland randomized trial comparing liposomal bupivacaine, plain bupivacaine, and saline for TAP blocks, into…
A focused PlayNext review of regional versus general cesarean anesthesia and newborn outcomes near birth.
This PlayNext episode looks at cesarean anesthesia through a narrow but important question: what regional versus general anesthesia may mean for newborns right after delivery. Mark D.
A careful review of what a cancer-surgery anesthesia trial can show, and where its design keeps the conclusion measured.
Anesthesia choice during cancer surgery is the focus of this measured look at the GA Cares randomized multicenter trial, comparing propofol with volatile agents.
Oncology evidence translated into clinical decisions.
Critical care evidence, carefully talked through.
Clinical research, reduced to its practical signal.
The May 2026 Editor-in-Chief Podcast discusses key clinical questions in anesthesiology, including ventilator settings, regional anesthesia, airway management, and social determinants of health.
Editor-in-Chief Jim Rathmel previews the April 2026 issue of Anesthesiology, highlighting studies on pain during cesarean delivery, perioperative risk, sepsis management, and airway management.
The Anesthesiology Journal podcast episode on pain during cesarean delivery brings together editor-in-chief Jim Rathmell, consultant anesthetist James O'Carroll, and obstetric anesthesiologist Ruth Landau.
["Armin Valadkhani says a five-level METS assessment was associated with both mortality and morbidity, and each MET level carried its own 365-day mortality risk.", "Jim Rathmel, editor-in-chief of Anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School, discusses the March 2026 study with Valadkhani of the Karolinska Institute and editorial co-author Duminda Wijesundara of the University of Toronto.", "The prospective cohort covered adults having elective non-cardiac surgery at Karolinska University Hospital in Solna and Hudding from 2000 to 2023, using 30-day mortality, 365-day mortality, and days at home alive.", "Wijesundara's editorial argues that unstructured preoperative interviews are unreliable and that structured tools such as the Duke Activity Status Index or MET-repair questionnaire are more consistent for bedside risk assessment."]
Editor-in-Chief Jim Rathmel previews the March 2026 issue of Anesthesiology, highlighting studies on functional capacity assessment, anesthetic approaches for placenta accreta, hypnosis for breast cancer recovery, and reviews on vasopressors and platelet transfusion.
Alparslan Turan’s Cleveland Randomized Trial found that liposomal bupivacaine, plain bupivacaine, and saline TAP blocks produced similar opioid use and pain scores after major abdominal surgery.
Anesthesiology Journal's February 2026 episode reports nearly an 80% increase in surgical patients receiving opioid use disorder medications between 2016 and 2022.
Jim Rathmell, professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and editor-in-chief of Anesthesiology, speaks with Dr.
A meta-analysis of 36 randomized cesarean trials found neuraxial anesthesia had only a small neonatal edge over general anesthesia, with about a 0.6-point APGAR difference at one minute.
Among 139 enrolled adults aged 65 or older, the number of reported stressors was more associated with adverse surgical outcomes than a zero-to-ten distress rating.
The AMPREC trial, published in the December 2025 issue of Anesthesiology, randomized more than 700 children aged 0 to 12 at 12 Chinese hospitals to propofol, sevoflurane, or combined maintenance.
An interview with Dr.
An anesthesiology podcast interview discussing a study on sugammadex use in patients with renal impairment and an accompanying editorial on its off-label safety and efficacy.
An interview with researchers about a new drug, Danovorexton, that reduces opioid-induced respiratory depression and sedation without affecting analgesia.
An interview with authors discussing a study on pyridoxine for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting in gynecologic laparoscopic surgery.
An interview with authors of a study comparing high PEEP with recruitment maneuvers versus low PEEP during general anesthesia for surgery, using a Bayesian individual patient data meta-analysis.