The medical specialty anesthesiology
The pivot in perioperative medicine
The medical and scientific specialty Anesthesiology is engaged in the protection of patients against life threatening circumstances caused by illness or trauma or as a result of iatrogenic stress during diagnostic and/or therapeutic treatments like surgery.
Anesthesiologists are so-called integrative physiologists, who implement physiological and pharmacological knowledge to partly or completely take over the vital functions of a patient. Maintenance and protection of vital functions requires the use of non-invasive and invasive hemodynamic monitoring and ventilation devices.
The department of Anesthesiology of the VU University Medical Center is involved in the following activities:
- Anesthesia service in the operating room
- Intensive Care medicine
- Emergency medicine
- Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
- Helicopter Emergency Medical Service
- Epidural pain relief during labor
- Therapeutic and diagnostic nerve blocks
- Treatment of chronic pain
- Palliative care