Peyton Murin, a second-year medical student in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, was awarded first place in the resident and medical student poster competition at the Tennessee Society of Anesthesiologists (TSA) Annual Meeting in Nashville. Murin’s poster, titled “Regional Anesthesia and Patient Care Outcome Measures in Isolated Rib Fracture Patients,” placed first out of 16 posters, and was created under the mentorship of Jerry Jones, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology.
“I was very excited for this opportunity to present my research and to represent UTHSC and the department,” Murin said. “My poster was very well received, and I look forward to how this opportunity will help me further my goal of becoming an anesthesiologist.”
Murin’s poster and research focused on isolated rib fractures in a level 1 trauma center and the utility of regional anesthesia in pain management outcomes for these patients. This past summer, he and Dr. Jones collected retrospective data on the use of continuous peripheral nerve blocks in place of opioids for treatment of rib fractures outside of the operating room.
“We wanted to look at how regional anesthesia could affect the standard of care and keep patients out of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and off mechanical ventilation,” said Murin. “Upon analyzing the data, we found that regional anesthesia reduces both ICU admission rate and mean ICU length of stay, as well as mechanical ventilation rates and mean mechanical ventilation days. Going forward, we hope to publish these findings to challenge the long-held standard of care (opioids) and illustrate the utility of regional anesthesia outside the operating theatre.”
The TSA is a physician organization for anesthesiologists in Tennessee that is focused on promoting the highest standards of profession in the field and is committed to providing great patient safety. Steven Boggs, MD, MBA, professor and chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at UTHSC, currently serves as president for the TSA.
“The Department of Anesthesiology at UTHSC is actively endeavoring to enhance the educational opportunities for medical students,” said Dr. Boggs. “We want to improve the anesthesia rotations for those students who take them, so they develop a fuller understanding of the breadth of the specialty; and for those students who are interested in anesthesia professionally, our faculty want to serve as mentors. This is exemplified by the collaboration between Dr. Jones and Peyton Murin.”
Murin’s poster was also accepted for the Anesthesia Society for Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management (ASRA) conference taking place this April in San Francisco, CA, where he and Dr. Jones will present their results.