Medical Team
Anesthesiologists at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation work at a number of hospitals and surgical units, including:
- Stanford University Medical Center
- Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
- Palo Alto Surgecenter
- Menlo Park Surgical Hospital
- Mountain View SurgiCenter
- Santa Cruz medical facilities
An anesthesiologist is a preoperative (before surgery), intraoperative (during surgery) and postoperative (after surgery) intensive-care doctor. Each anesthesia doctor designs and administers your anesthetic. An anesthesiologist is responsible for patients before the operation until they leave the recovery room.
During the operation, the anesthesiologist precisely controls the patient's level of consciousness, sensation and body functions. The anesthesiologist takes care of the patient, so the surgeon can focus on the operation. In the recovery room, the anesthesiologist manages patients until they are stable enough to be transferred home or to a regular hospital room.
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Training
Modern anesthesia has grown to encompass perioperative medicine (relating to an operation), intensive-care medicine, pain management and delivery of intra-operative care for increasingly specialized and complex surgeries. After becoming doctors, anesthesiologists must train one or more years in any combination of internal medicine, surgery, emergency medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, neurology, family practice, critical care or pediatrics. This is followed by three years of anesthesia "residency" that involves training in pediatric, cardiac, vascular, neurologic, obstetric, trauma and general anesthesia.
The anesthesiologist must have detailed knowledge of pharmacology, physiology, medical and surgical conditions, and critical-care equipment and procedures. Such training allows anesthesiologists to provide expert patient care during all surgeries and procedures, from the simple to the most delicate and complex.
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