The ASA Monitor sat down with Dr. Warren M. Zapol, a key opinion leader in anesthesiology, for his insights on the specialty. Dr. Zapol is the Reginald Jenney Distinguished Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School, as well as Anesthetist-in-Chief Emeritus at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). As an influential researcher and scientist, Dr. Zapol's successful trials involving the use of inhaled nitric oxide (NO) therapy in newborns are responsible for the adoption of NO therapy for hypoxemic newborns in neonatal intensive units throughout the country.
ASA Monitor: Your insight that inhaled nitric oxide could dilate the pulmonary vessels without causing systemic hypotension has saved countless lives in newborns with persistent pulmonary hypertension and adults with primary pulmonary hypertension. Did this come to you in a single “Ah ha!” moment, or was it the culmination of years of investigation into the pulmonary vascular resistance?
Dr. Zapol: After many years investigating the...
