Zoe Brown

BSc, FRCA, MBChB

Investigator and Staff Anesthesiologist, BC Children's Hospital

I recently completed a research project looking at changes in cardiac output, how much blood the heart pumps around the body per minute, when teenagers are turned onto their front prior to operations to fix the curvature of their back. We found that the amount of blood is significantly reduced on turning on to their front.

This is leading on to further studies as I would like to look at how changes in anesthesia, for example the amount of fluid that we give these teenagers can affect their cardiac output. I am hoping to collaborate with the orthopediac surgeons and nephrologists to examine the incidence of kidney damage after surgery which may be related to changes in cardiac output.