Anesthesiology

Department Coordinator: Carol Saraceno

The staff assists the Department of Pharmacology in teaching the principles of anesthesia and the pharmacology of anesthetic drugs. Integrated with this didactic program, the Anesthesiology Department provides pertinent clinical demonstrations at the affiliated hospitals. Faculty members also lecture as part of the didactic programs in microbiology and physiology.

Also available are 10-week preceptorships in research in the various anesthesiology research labs. These preceptorships are offered during the summer following the second year of medical school.

A two-week anesthesiology selective is provided for third-or fourth-year students within the context of the required Surgery 800 (Surgical Specialties) rotation. This experience is offered at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Buffalo General Medical Center. The student receives clinical exposure with members of the anesthesiology staff in the operating rooms, recovery rooms, and ICU’s. Practical instruction, preoperative evaluation, preparation of patients for anesthesia, methods of anesthesia, and postoperative care are considered within this integrated rotation.

Also available is a four-week anesthesiology elective for third-year students. This is primarily limited to the second half of the junior year and is not an option for students visiting from other universities.

The objectives of this four-week rotation are to provide an opportunity for students to have direct patient management in the several areas touched by clinical anesthesiology and to point out the clinical applications of physiology and pharmacology as they pertain to anesthesiology.

Within this four-week elective, students will be responsible for the preoperative evaluation of patients (including H&P); and the ordering of preoperative medication. They are then allowed to actively participate in the administration of anesthesia in the operating room and are responsible for the postoperative care of the patient. The students will be under the direct supervision of an attending anesthesiologist in a ratio of no more than two students per faculty member.

The objectives are the same as the four-week anesthesiology elective as described above for junior students. This rotation is open to fourth year students for both semesters and students visiting from other universities via prior arrangements with the administrative office.

Third-and fourth-year students may opt to take an elective in anesthesia research. They must make individual arrangements with the administrative office to participate in the research programs.

Prime interests of the department are related to the effects of anesthetic agents on respiratory and circulatory mechanisms. Studies include: acid-base balance and circulation of anesthetized man during passive hyperventilation, aspiration pneumonitis, cerebral blood flow, ventilation during and post anesthesia, uptake and distribution of inert gases and inhalation anesthetics, clinical investigation of various anesthetic agents and adjuvants, and analysis of NMDA receptors.

Senior medical students may elect to do a four-week anesthesia elective at another university by arrangements with the chair’s office at that institution.