|
 Department of Anaesthesia
The Department of Anaesthesia at Aga Khan University
Hospital (AKUH) is an independent service aiming to
provide high standard of anaesthesia care. At present,
there are 20 full-time and three part-time faculty
members on board. In addition, there are 30 residents,
six medical officers and 28 technicians.
Teaching
The Department offers a five-year residency-training
programme, which is recognised by the College of Physicians
and Surgeons Pakistan. To date, 39 residents have qualified
from the programme and are working at different hospitals
within and outside Pakistan . The programme has gained
a nationwide recognition of being the best training
programme in Anaesthesiology in the country, the credit
undoubtedly goes to the dedicated and totally committed
faculty who are involved in teaching and training of
the residents.
The Department also has a comprehensive teaching programme
for undergraduate medical, nursing students and anaesthesia
technicians.
Clinical Work
The Department of Anaesthesia provides clinical
services to all the sub-specialities of surgery, including
general surgery, obstetrics, gynaecology, urology, neurosurgery, paediatric surgery, ENT, ophthalmology, plastic, fasciomaxillary, vascular cardiac and orthopaedic surgery where in addition to the elective procedures,
it provides anaesthesia cover to all emergency surgeries
for 24 hours. The Department is also responsible for
all the 10 bedded Intensive Care Unit and for provision
of service to Surgical Day Care, Psychiatry, Radiology,
Obstetric Epidural service, Acute and Chronic Pain
Management and Sedation services. The Department runs
a very busy pre-operative Anaesthesia Assessment Clinic,
which is open five days a week. Pain Clinic is held
twice a week for management of chronic pain patients.
The department also provides backup support at the
Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS), Karimabad for the
Day Care procedures being carried out. In addition
to providing clinical services at AKUH, the Department
has developed linkages to provide services to underprivileged
areas of the country's Northern Areas, interior Sindh
and interior Punjab, etc.
Scholarly and Research Activities
The Department is actively involved in clinical
research, where it has conducted a number of clinical
trials, the results of which have been published in
indexed national and international anaesthesia journals.
During 2003, there were three publications in international
journals and four in the national journals while two
publications were in the national newspapers. Research
interests are the haemodynamic response to tracheal
intubation, post-operative pain relief in children,
alternatives to short acting analgesics in intra-operative
and post-operative pain relief and regional anaesthesia.
The Department encourages its faculty to enhance their
skills and knowledge, and supports them to attend different
medical symposia, seminars and workshops as part of
their continued medical education. Residents are also
encouraged to attend national conferences/meetings
and make presentations at different national forums,
for which the Department financially supports them.
Department of Anaesthesia, Aga Khan University
|
