The Anesthesia Division takes care of all anesthetic management except for surgery with local anesthesia performed at the Surgery Department and Radiology Department of our hospital. Anesthesiologists are responsible for the safety of patients not only during the surgery but also the perioperative period. At the Anesthesia Outpatient Ward, we examine severe patients before surgery to determine the feasibility of anesthetic management. We also examine the entire bodies of patients who are hospitalized the day before or the same day of surgery and propose an anesthesia management plan. During surgery, using the latest anesthesia machines and monitors, we observe the condition of the entire body and manage anesthesia putting the safety of patients as our first priority. After the surgery, we manage pain using patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) to alleviate post-operative pain. The number of patients for whom we provided anesthetic management in 2012 was 3811.
Our expertise is total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) using target-controlled infusion (TCI) in which anesthesia is managed not by dose but by blood concentration, leading to quick wake up and less nausea, vomiting, and pain after surgery. Also, we often use epidural anesthesia to decrease post-operative pain. The number of patients who received volatile inhaled general anesthesia was 1748 and the number of patients who received total intravenous anesthesia using TCI was 2003.
Anesthesia Outpatient Ward
We are the division that comprehensively diagnoses and treats "pain." We mainly treat patients with neuropathic pain such as trifacial neuralgia, postherpetic neuralgia, complex regional pain syndrome (CCRPS), and post-operative pain syndrome. In addition, we perform alleviation of cancer pain and diagnosis/treatment of cerebrospinal fluid hypovolemia. Although the main therapeutic methods are pharmacotherapy and nerve block therapy, depending on the type and site of "pain," we provide Oriental medicine such as acupuncture and Kampo.
Our basic treatment is alleviation of pain by pharmacotherapy based on the results of drug challenge tests. In cases of acute pain or during acute aggravation of chronic pain, we try to improve the therapeutic effect by combining with nerve block. We also utilize physical therapy such as near-infrared irradiation to improve the therapeutic effect. Also, we utilize Oriental medicine, combining it with Western medicine.