SleepTalker November 2023 | Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University

Volume 39 Number 5	Stony Brook, NY	< November 2023 >

ASA Meeting	Kudos	NYSSA Leadership	Dr. Richman Retires
ASRA Meeting	SFN Meeting	Dr. Costa SleepTalker Editor	Behind the Pub
Family News	Marathon!	New Publications	Where on Campus is That?
	Synaptic Communication	Monthly Muscle Chillaxant

Stony Brook Anesthesiology at the ASA

Photos courtesy of Drs. Bargnes and Richman. View all of the photos here.

Kudos

Drs. Oster and Patel Elected to NYSSA District 8 Offices

The membership of NYSSA District 8 elected Dr. Jonathan B. Oster as Alternate Director and Dr. Ami Patel as Secretary Treasurer at their meeting on November 7. Congratulations! Click here for more photos courtesy of Drs. Costa, Landman, Poovathoor, Jasiewicz, and Shah.

Dr. Richman Retires

Dr. Deborah Richman, Director of Preoperative Services has retired from clinical practice after 18 years of service to the Department of Anesthesiology. It is actually semi-retirement, as she will continue in a teaching role as voluntary faculty here at Stony Brook Medicine.

Dr. Richman joined our department in 2005. Dr. Peter Glass (Chairman at that time) asked her to direct and improve the department's Preoperative Services Clinic. She took on this task eagerly and expertly. Dr. Richman organized and trained her team, which is comprised of many healthcare workers, including residents and CRNAs. She worked diligently to maximize patient safety and quality care, minimize patient distress and unnecessary costs, and provide anesthesiologists with thorough preoperative evaluations prior to the OR. In her many years as Director of Preoperative Services, day-of-surgery cancellations decreased from 8% in 2006 to <1.1%.

Dr. Richman has been a member of the Society for Perioperative Assessment and Quality Improvement from the beginning and served as its Vice President (2014-16) and President (2016-18). She has been prolific in writing peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and meeting abstracts. In these, she has discussed pre-op management issues including diabetes, implantable devices, smoking cessation, wearable pedometer devices, and the needs of deaf patients. In addition, Dr. Richman is a mentor to junior faculty and residents, to whom she provides extensive educational and academic guidance.

We wish Deborah and Paul a happy retirement and hope they have many adventures with traveling, boating, visiting family, and the occasional teaching stint!

ASRA Pain Medicine Meeting

Two of our residents will present posters at the 22nd Annual Pain Medicine Meeting in New Orleans.

Medically Challenging Cases

Rahman S, Desai A, Moore R. Erector spinae plane block for cancer related brachial plexus pain - A new role for regional anesthesia in NORA?
Ghaly L, Zimmerman A, Kaushal A. The use of stellate ganglion block for post- covid-19 pleuritic chest pain.

Society for Neuroscience Meeting 2023

Basic Science members of the department are heading to Washington, DC this weekend for the Society for Neuroscience meeting.

Abstracts

Sipple E, Gunaratna K, Liu H, Lauzadis J, Kaczocha M, Puopolo M. Inhibition of endocannabinoid catabolizing enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase to reduce chronic neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury.
Shuvaev S, Amelchenko E, Smagin D, Kudryavtseva N, Enikolopov G, Koulakov A. A normative theory of social conflict.
Amelchenko EM, Bezriadnov DC, Chekhov OA, Ivanova AA, Kedrov AA, Anokhin KV, Lazutkin AA, Enikolopov G. Age- and irradiation-dependent decline in cognitive flexibility is associated with compromised hippocampal neurogenesis.
Korada S, Tam O, Willbold D, Hammell M, Dubnau J, Sher R. Tdp-43 pathology causes differential expression of retrotransposons in a tdp-43-q331k mouse model.

Dr. Costa Joins SleepTalker Editorial Board

James P. Dilger, PhD

I am delighted to write that Dr. Ana Costa accepted my invitation to join the Editorial Board of SleepTalker! Over the past few months, Ana has helped me in several ways and I thought that it was only right that she should be recognized for this. This month alone, she sent me photos from the NYSSA meeting and from Lindsay Fischer's marathon run. Ana also contributed to the article about Dr. Richman's retirement.

Welcome, Ana!

Behind the Pub: Traumatic carotid artery injury

Ehab Al-Bizri, MD

Tsivitis A, Kozlowski P, Corrado T, Chesler D, Moore R, Al-Bizri E. Traumatic carotid artery injury caused by a metal sipping straw in a pediatric patient: Anesthetic management and considerations. Trauma Case Rep. 2023 Oct 20;48:100965

This is a case report about an interesting trauma case we did last year. Details about the neurosurgery involved, and Charlie's excellent outcome, have been written up by the SB Neurosciences Institute and in the popular press Today.com.

In our case report, we discuss how anesthetic management played a vital part in this outstanding outcome. Our concerns included: hemodynamic management, fluid management, and intracranial pressure. Unlike for adults, there are no clear trends or guidelines for managing children with penetrating neck injury. However, basic neuro-anesthetic principles extrapolated from adult literature, translated to an optimal outcome in this pediatric patient. Clearly, there are knowledge gaps in the evidence-based anesthetic care of pediatric patients undergoing endovascular treatment for acute ischemic stroke, necessitating further clinical investigation.

Richman Family News

Deborah C. Richman, MBChB FFA(SA)

My husband, Paul, and I have much to celebrate!

The marriage of our son, Micha to Yocheved in Baltimore on October 19th – Mazel Tov to the young couple and their families
Our 25th wedding anniversary on Oct 20^th
The graduation of our daughter, Orli from Stony Brook University in December – linguistics major, and will be starting her doctorate in Audiology next year. Like her covid cancelled high school graduation ceremony, she again had graduation cancelled – this is the first year Stony Brook is not having a December convocation. (But we made her walk in May 😊)
Our retirement – my last day was Nov 2^nd!

I want to express my gratitude to all in the anesthesia department for the wonderful retirement celebration; and a wonderful 18 years leading up to that celebration. Be well, be happy and continue to serve our patients with the excellent care that our department is known for. My contact info is unchanged – same SB email and same cell number – stay in touch! I’ll be around as voluntary teaching faculty.

NYC Marathon!

CRNA Lindsay Fischer ran the 2023 NYC Marathon last weekend! Congratulations!!

Lindsay was running to raise funds for the Red Door Community charity. So far, she has raised $3,375, surpassing her goal of $3,000! Her contribution page will remain open for a few more days. It's not too late to chip in!

New Publications

Doufas AG, Laporta ML, Driver CN, Di Piazza F, Scardapane M, Bergese SD, Urman RD, Khanna AK, Weingarten TN; Prediction of Opioid-induced respiratory Depression In patients monitored by capnoGraphY (PRODIGY) Group Investigators. Incidence of postoperative opioid-induced respiratory depression episodes in patients on room air or supplemental oxygen: a post-hoc analysis of the PRODIGY trial. BMC Anesthesiol. 2023 Oct 4;23(1):332
Hillowe A, Gordon C, Wang L, Rizzo RC, Trotman LC, Ojima I, Bialkowska A, Kaczocha M. Fatty acid binding protein 5 regulates docetaxel sensitivity in taxane-resistant prostate cancer cells. PLoS One. 2023 Oct 5;18(10)
Vail EA, Feng R, Sieber F, Carson JL, Ellenberg SS, Magaziner J, Dillane D, Marcantonio ER, Sessler DI, Ayad S, Stone T, Papp S, Donegan D, Mehta S, Schwenk ES, Marshall M, Jaffe JD, Luke C, Sharma B, Azim S, Hymes R, Chin KJ, Sheppard R, Perlman B, Sappenfield J, Hauck E, Tierney A, Horan AD, Neuman MD; REGAIN (Regional versus General Anesthesia for Promoting Independence after Hip Fracture) Investigators. Long-term outcomes with spinal versus general anesthesia for hip fracture surgery: A randomized trial. Anesthesiology. 2023 Oct 13
Liu X, Tang SJ. Pathogenic mechanisms of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated pain. Mol Psychiatry. 2023 Oct 19
Bargnes V 3rd, Oliver B, Wang E, Greenspan S, Jin Z, Yeung I, Bergese S. Taming Postoperative Delirium with Dexmedetomidine: A Review of the Therapeutic Agent's Neuroprotective Effects following Surgery. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2023 Oct 13;16(10):1453
Tsivitis A, Kozlowski P, Corrado T, Chesler D, Moore R, Al Bizri E. Traumatic carotid artery injury caused by a metal sipping straw in a pediatric patient: Anesthetic management and considerations. Trauma Case Rep. 2023 Oct 20;48:100965
Conen D, et al; COP-AF Investigators (including Poppers J). Effect of colchicine on perioperative atrial fibrillation and myocardial injury after non-cardiac surgery in patients undergoing major thoracic surgery (COP-AF): an international randomised trial. Lancet. 2023 Nov 4;402(10413):1627-1635

Where on Campus is That?

James P. Dilger, PhD

Synaptic Communication: OMG More Wordle Stuff!

James P. Dilger, PhD

Last month I wrote about my Retirement Project regarding Wordle, the popular word game found in the New York Times (and can be played in at least 50 different languages on different sites!). In my exposé, I revealed that every day some 0.1-0.5% of players cheat when they "solve" the puzzle in one try. But my analysis of Wordle went beyond cheating and dealt with "loyalty" and "influence" as well. Influence is this month's topic.

The number 1 starting guess in “normal” mode Wordle is consistently ADIEU with a Share of just under 8%. The appeal of ADIEU may be that it assays 4 vowels in one go. ADIEU has not been the target word yet, but it had a sudden surge in popularity on August 15 (see figure). So far, much of this change has persisted. A likely explanation comes from observation that the August 15 NYT Mini Crossword clue for 6 across was “most popular starting guess in Wordle” and, of course, the answer was ADIEU. This seems to have inspired about 30,000 players to abandon whatever opening strategy they had been using and follow the crowd. ADIEU also spiked on August 30. Again, it was not the target word, but that was the day for AUDIO. Were players especially fond of words with 4 vowels that day? Actually, some websites that offer "hints" (read "cheats") for players, reveal the starting letter and/or the number of vowels in the target word. Oh, and that tiny spike on October 17 - the target word was ADULT. Whaddya think?

CROWN is not a popular starting word; it normally ranks between 200 and 400 in popularity. However, on May 6, 2023, CROWN shot up to the #10 spot, garnering a 1% share of first guesses! (The target word was ANGER). Anglophiles will immediately recognize that date as the coronation of King Charles III. (Full disclosure: I had to Google it!) Just imagine what the geographic distribution of CROWN must have been that day! Residents of the USA are not immune to current event influence either. On September 4, 2023, LABOR worked its way out of obscurity to #11 (0.9% share). That date, of course, is when we USofAers celebrated Labor Day in 2023. (The target word was GIDDY).

Hard core Wordle aficionados may recall the infamous Thanksgiving Day Scandal in 2022. The target word that day turned out to be FEAST. The NYT Wordle Curator was accused of meddling with the Wordle word list to fit the season. She eventually owned up to the crime and promised to not be a repeat offender. Apparently, the CROWN and LABOR crowd didn't get the memo! On the other hand, Wordle is just a game. If you want to spice it up with a timely starting word, go for it!

Monthly Muscle Chillaxant

Caroline Menezes

SleepTalker, the Stony Brook Anesthesiology Newsletter is published by the Department of Anesthesiology
Stony Brook Medicine, Stony Brook, NY
Syed Shah, MD, Interim Chairman
Editorial Board: James P. Dilger, PhD; Ana Costa, MD; Murad Elias, MD; Vincent Bargnes, MD