Chemistry in the Operating Room
Beers Law Lab: Anesthesia
Before the Fun Begins
I have never personally experienced Anesthesia, however I foresee an experience when my wisdom teeth are removed,
What makes Anesthesia so great?
The desirable characteristics of Anesthesia are being able to go through an operation without any pain and only minor side effects.
What makes Anesthesia not so great?
The undesirable characteristics of Anesthesia are nausea and pain side effects,
The Set Up
Colorimeter
Anesthesia Solutions
Computer and Colorimeter
Observations and Explanations
Why won't Aunt Elda wake up?
How exactly did Aunt Elda die?
According to http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/04/under-the-knife-study-shows-rising-death-rates-from-general-anesthesia/, "To begin anesthesia, a high dose of anesthetic is required that usually sends a patient’s blood pressure plummeting downward. Everybody reacts differently, however, and not always as expected. "It can sometimes be extremely difficult to estimate how much anesthetic to administer to an overweight patient,” Dr. André Gottschalk, author of the study and acting director of the Clinic for Anesthesiology, Intensive Medicine and Pain Therapy at Bochum’s university hospital, explains. He notes that an overdose can lead to rapid decline in blood pressure and requires immediate administration of drugs to raise blood pressure."
There is a possibility that it was hard to estimate the correct dosage of anesthesia to Aunt Elda and her blood pressure dropped and could not be sustained causing death.
Beer's Law?
We do know that Beer's Law is A= Ebc, but what exactly does that mean?
According to http://teaching.shu.ac.uk/hwb/chemistry/tutorials/molspec/beers1.htm, E is the molar absorbtivity, b is the path length of the cuvette in which the sample is contained, and c is the concentration of the compound in solution. With this, we can discover what exactly the concentration of Aunt Elda's solution is.
Make your Own Solution!
Bubble Recipe
80% Water (Solvent)
20% Soap (Solute)
This is an 8:2 recipe solvent to solute. Today, we'll make a 10 mL solution.
Because this is an 8:2 solution, there will be 8 parts water and 2 parts soap. This will require 8 mL of water and 2 mL of soap.
That completes instructions to making your very own two part solution, and you can even have some fun after!
Photo Sources
Deceased Aunt Elda:
Bubbles: