This has come up once, in Question 28.3 from the first paper of 2011. The marvels and wonder of nitric oxide are discussed elsewhere. This question refers specifically to the the nitric oxide cylinder, which is the form this gas is usually found in. The gas comes in a pressurised cylinder, under a brand name "INOmax". It contains 99.92% nitrogen and only 0.08% nitric oxide, or 800 parts per million (ppm). It needs to be dilute, for convenience of administration. The highest concentration you would ever use is about 80ppm, which corresponds to a gas mixture of 90% whatever, and 10% Inomax. In general, the INOmax delivery system procedure guide is an excellent source of detailed gas-cylinder-related information.

Complications that affect patients recovering from ECR fall neatly into categories of clotting or bleeding. Either the vessel has reoccluded, or it was not reperfused enough to prevent cerebral oedema, or it was reperfused too late and oedema is already well established, or there is haemorrhagic transformation of the infarct. Beyond these, the rest are mainly complications related to the vascular access, which are not much different from the complications seen by interventional cardiologists.

The nasogastric tube is such a mundane feature of the ICU environment that this device has never made it into a CICM Fellowship SAQ, presumably because neither the examiners nor the candidates (who tend to become examiners) considered it to be sufficiently "ICU-centric" to

The equipment and procedure syllabus area can be sepearated neatly into the things the college genuinely considered to be of importance, and things which have been historically important but which are either never going to reappear because of their obscurity and obsolescence.

Arterial line insertion has somehow been neglected in the CICM Second Part exams, in spite of its ubiquity and routine use. This means it is only a matter of time.

There are multiple mechanisms of establishing two way communication with ventilated ICU patients, even through layers of disability and sedation. These range from gestures to varying types of gas-flow-assisted speech for the patient with a tracheostomy.

Lung ultrasound has several established indications, like pneumothorax and pleural effusion, and several less-well-established but nonetheless promising applications. The CICM second part syllabus has so far focused only on the basics.

Question 17 from the first paper of 2025 asked the candidates to define these terms and "outline the key differences" for each pair.