Anaesthesiology and Pain Therapy

By means of a highly qualified team, the Department of Anaesthesiology treats approximately 3,000 patients per year who receive general anaesthesia at the Jewish Hospital.

In a preparatory conversation we take the time to agree on an individual procedure together with you. We enquire about your illnesses, the medication you use and suggest an appropriate anaesthesia. Perhaps it is necessary to conduct some additional examinations. In so doing we are able to provide individual and safe care, even for so-called risk patients (advanced age, severe comorbidities).

In our hospital we guarantee up-to-date anaesthesia care in our state-of-the-art surgery rooms with our team of committed nurses, care workers and doctors. Patients receive balanced anaesthesia with state-of-the-art anaesthetic gas or an intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA). For this purpose, we have complex monitoring devices at our disposal with which we monitor all relevant anaesthesia and patient data including anaesthesia depth (EEG).

A further focus of the department is regional anaesthesia (“partial anaesthesia”). This means that individual parts of the body are anaesthetised. The benefit lies in the gentle and distinguished elimination of pain. By means of ultrasound, we locate specific nerves or plexuses, which can then be anaesthetised for a certain amount of time.

Interventions on the lower half of the body can be carried out completely free of pain with spinal or epidural anaesthesia. A mild sedative can be additionally administered on request.

After each intervention, patients are cared for in a recovery room. This enables us to make sure that patients are safely returned to their wards without severe pain, with a stable circulation and in a wakeful state.

If larger haemorrhages occur during surgery, blood transfusion may become necessary. We place a strong emphasis on careful diagnosis in this context and the use of donor blood-saving processes. Mechanical preparation (“cell saving”) is possible. An individual procedure is discussed with patients who, for instance, refuse donor blood due to religious convictions.

Key Focus Pain Therapy

Postoperative pain therapy is individually determined depending on the operation and the patients’ requirements. In most cases the administration of pain-relief medication is carried out according to a pain ladder. An alternative is patient-controlled analgesia with a programmed PCA pump. This enables patients to determine the time of the injection themselves, in accordance with the programming. Catheter-based procedures play an important role for us in pain therapy. This means that medication is administered via a very fine catheter which is placed close to a nerve or inserted via a peridural catheter.

By means of daily pain rounds, the success of the pain treatment is monitored and treatment can be adapted according to the requirements of each individual patient.

We are involved in the optimization of treatments connected to perioperative, acute and chronic pain, within the context of an interdisciplinary quality circle.