Critical Care Anesthesiology

The UCLA Department of Anesthesiology and the American Board of Anesthesiology emphasize the concept of anesthesiology as a practice of perioperative medicine, caring for the patient in the pre, intra and postoperative period.

The practice of anesthesiology involves applying many facets of medicine, surgery, physiology, and pharmacology in the operating room. The subspecialty of critical care medicine encompasses the practice of anesthesiology, surgery and medicine in acutely ill patients. Anesthesiology practitioners bring their expertise to the challenging environment of the intensive care unit and take with them a deeper knowledge of diseases to apply to the operating room.

Our residents rotate through the Surgical ICU at the VA, the liver transplant ICU as well as the pediatric ICU. Additionally they interact with intensivists from departments of pulmonary critical care, pediatrics and surgery in addition to anesthesia. The residents care for a large variety of acutely ill patients and learn from a multidisciplinary group of attendings, giving them a well rounded education.