Anesthesiology is a popular medical education elective and a competitive medical specialty.
Studying anesthesiology from pre-made Anki decks is one of the best ways to introduce yourself to core topics and achieve real mastery over the material.
The digital flashcards in each of the following decks can help you do exactly that!
The Best Anesthesiology Anki Decks
The 5 decks we’ll be looking at are:
- Ankithesia (most comprehensive)
- Anesthesia Stanford Guide Anki Deck (high yield for medical students)
- Anesthesia Drug Cards (focus on the pharmacological side)
- Anesthesia Elective Primer (brief overview)
- Understanding Anesthesiology (best for nurses)
Each of these decks is formatted and structured differently, suiting those with varied learning styles. They also differ in size, meaning some will be faster to run through than others.
We recommend taking a look at each and checking out the card examples first before downloading.
We’ve also included some helpful general anesthesiology learning resources at the end of this article too!
Ankisthesia
| Deck Name: | Ankisthesia |
| Cards: | 11,898 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2021 |
| Required Plugins: | N/A |
| Download size: | 850.5 MB |
| Download link: | Ankisthesia |
This is a huge deck at a whopping 11,898 cards created by Redditor u/AnkisthesiaMed.
It is suitable for both medical school and residency.
Sources for the deck include:
- Morgan and Mikhail’s Clinical Anesthesiology
- Additions from Hoops clinical medicine Anki cards
It’s recommended to use the following technique with this deck when on anesthesia rotations:
- Read through each Clinical Anesthesiology chapter
- After reading that chapter, unsuspend those cards under the “CA-1” tag
- Once those cards have been studied, go to the next chapter then keep repeating
NB: There most high yield chapters are 4,5,6,19,20 and 23. It can be best to focus on these first and do the associated tags for them. This will put you in good position for the rotation!
Here’s how Ankisthesia is structured:
Here is a sample card from “Chapter 01 Standard Monitors”…
Here is another anesthesiology flashcard example from the “M&M Anaesthesia Workstation” section…
Anesthesia Stanford Guide Anki Deck
| Deck Name: | Anesthesia Stanford Guide |
| Cards: | 561 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2020 |
| Required Plugins: | N/A |
| Download size: | 35.9 MB |
| Download link: | Anesthesia Stanford Guide |
This deck has 561 cards. It is based on an anesthetics textbook used by new residents at Stanford to review and prepare their content.
You can see the guide here – it is comprehensive and covers lots of important topics such as pulse oximetry and capnography.
The lecture series has a lot of relevance to medical school anesthetics (or any other elective or introductory course).
Here is a sample card from the deck on the properties of nitrous oxide…
Here is another card from the deck on the topic of mechanical ventilation…
Anesthesia Drug Cards
| Deck Name: | Anesthesia Drug Cards |
| Cards: | 602 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2016 |
| Required Plugins: | N/A |
| Download size: | 83 KB |
| Download link: | Anesthesia Drug Cards |
This deck contains 602 cards that focus on the main drugs encountered in anesthesiology.
It is very useful for reviewing all the relevant pharmacology points on the subject.
Here is a sample card from the deck on succinylcholine:
Here is another card from the deck on the pharmacokinetics of Cisatracurium…
Understanding the fundamentals of these drug allows you to logically decide which should be chosen for therapeutic management!
Anesthesia Elective Primer
| Deck Name: | Anesthesia Elective Primer |
| Cards: | 112 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2019 |
| Required Plugins: | N/A |
| Download size: | 1.2 MB |
| Download link: | Anaesthesia Elective Primer |
This is a short deck with only 112 cards but it covers the fundamentals well.
Even though its specifically made for US medical school clerkships/electives, it is useful as a review for any anesthesiology course.
Here is a sample card on the Lash reflex…
This is another card from the deck covering the Mallampati classes…
Understanding Anesthesiology
| Deck Name: | Understanding Anesthesiology |
| Cards: | 349 |
| Card Format: | Basic |
| Year of Upload: | 2018 |
| Required Plugins: | N/A |
| Download size: | 6.1 MB |
| Download link: | Understanding Anesthesiology |
This deck has 349 cards and is intended for nurses and other curious medical students.
The deck is formatted in a basic front/back format (no cloze cards).
It has multiple images and tables incorporated.
Here is a sample card on the properties of inhaled agents:
If you press “Toggle Masks”- all boxes are revealed simultaneously. This is handy to easily compare the different gases and compare properties like MAC and odor.
Here is another example card from this anesthesiology deck…
Additional Anesthesiology Resources
There are several other platforms for learning the specialty and doing well in your school and residency exams (besides Anki).
Depending on how far into the subject you wish to go, each of these resources goes into varying depth.
Recommended Anesthesiology Flashcards
Anesthesiology Oral Board Flash Cards
Designed for aspiring anesthetic residents, this 150 two-sided flashcard deck is great for developing your critical thinking skills and helping analyze situations and formulate a plan. Made by Lange, you know you’re getting top-tier quality. Passing the Oral Board exams can be a lot easier with these in your pocket!
Recommended Anesthesiology Textbook
Clinical Anesthesiology – Morgan & Mikhail
The gold standard anesthesiology textbook. So good, the first Anki deck on this list; Ankisthesia, is built on this. The 6th edition features rich full-color artworks and a modern user-friendly design. The tables and figures, coupled with the boxed key concepts, help you master the specialty faster.
Video
Medicosis Perfectionalis
Medicosis Perfectionalis has an excellent 10-video playlist on the specialty. They cover the history, the basics, the pharmacokinetics and the methodologies. Well worth exploring!
Where To Find More Anki Anesthesiology Decks
We highly recommend going to AnkiWeb.net and looking at the anesthesiology-based offerings.
You can filter your results to see the most recent and most relevant pre-made Anki decks via search.
Why Use An Anki Anesthesiology Pre-Made Deck?
- Excellent free resource
- Saves time making your own cards while covering the most high yield principles
- Gives you more time to do practice questions!
Top Tips For Using Anki Anesthesiology Flashcard Decks
There can be lots of information on some cards which can be overwhelming. Our top tip is to keep it SIMPLE and make sure you are actively practicing cards on a regular basis.
Keep reviewing the cards where possible, i.e. once you have finished your set for the day, briefly make a mental note or write down where your study session ended.
If you’re studying from a large multi-subject pre-made Anki deck, make sure you use tags and suspend (ctrl + J) all other cards outside of the usual anesthesiology topics.
The same goes for making sure you only cover the topics you’ve already studied in your primary learning resource!
If you enjoyed this post, you might find the following articles useful:
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- 5 Best Pediatrics Anki Decks (2021)
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Hey guys, I’m Sumran. I’m a British 5th-year international medical student at the Medical University of Varna, Bulgaria. I transitioned straight from completing my A-Levels into university. Currently, I have interests in Psychiatry and Gastroenterology. Outside of medicine, I enjoy reading crime novels and visiting art exhibitions.