Clinical Programs and Services

Perioperative Blood Management Services provides perioperative anemia screening and treatment for major surgeries at Capital Health and IWK Health. Team members also counsel patients who decline blood products and coordinate intra-operative surgical and anesthetic blood management techniques.

Our program is a resource in perioperative blood management for physicians and hospitals in Atlantic Canada. We educate staff, residents, nurses and allied health professionals on the most up-to-date techniques in perioperative blood management. On the research front, we conduct studies in blood loss in cardiac surgery and the use of blood salvage systems.

The cardiac anesthesia team supports all cardiac surgeries for NS Health. The cardiac surgical services include coronary bypass, valvular, aortic, transplant and congenital heart surgeries. We provide transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) for the OR and the cardiac surgery intensive care unit. We also provide anesthetic care in the cardiac catheterization lab for TAVI, mitral and tricuspid valve clips, structural heart disease and the EP lab. We also provide care for patients with severe cardiac disease requiring non cardiac surgery.

The neuroanesthesia team provides anesthesia services for about 20 surgeries each week, most of which result from intracranial tumours, aneurysms, head trauma and spinal anomalies.

Pain Management Services provides acute and chronic pain assessment, treatment and management, conducts groundbreaking research, particularly in chronic pain, and delivers undergraduate medical education, resident education and training, and fellowship training.

Pain Management Services patient care services include:

• regional analgesia
• patient-controlled analgesia
• chronic pain treatment and management through:
  • medication
  • acupuncture
  • electromotive drug administration
  • nerve blocks
  • trigger-point injections
  • transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
  • self-management

The pediatric anesthesia team at IWK Health provides anesthesia care to children and youth in the Maritime provinces. While much of their expertise supports surgical activity, the team is active outside of the operating theatre where cases can also be complex and require extended support.

The team administers a range of programs and services to respond to the varied needs of children, youth and their families. Medical students and residents also participate in these services as part of their medical education and training:

• cardiac program
• pediatric pain service
• pediatric pain network
• preoperative assessments, telephone consults and chart reviews
• trauma team
• malignant hyperthermia consultation service and database
• difficult airway consultation service and register
• cardiac arrest response team
• EHS Lifeflight medical control

The Pediatric Pain Service works with children from birth to adolescence to help ease their pain. As part of a larger interdisciplinary team at IWK Health, members provide acute and chronic pain consultation and treatment/management options.

Residents and medical students receive exceptional learning opportunities with the Pediatric Pain Service – one of only three such clinical and research programs in Canada. The pediatric pain team often receives requests for consultation and clinical advice from hospitals and health centres across Canada and the United States.

Advances in treating and managing pediatric pain relate directly to a growing national and international commitment to research. Many of our faculty members are at the forefront of that research. To learn more, visit the Centre for Pediatric Pain Research.

Surgeries for treatment of conditions affecting the lungs, chest wall and diaphragm require general anesthesia and, at times, one-lung ventilation. Anesthesia care for thoracic surgeries at the QEII Health Sciences Centre (more than 350 annually) is provided by a specialized group of anesthesiologists. They also conduct research, primarily in post-operative pain following thoracic surgery, and provide specialized education and training to residents, attending physicians and medical students.

Anesthesia care for liver and kidney transplantation is among the most complex in the specialty, and we provide these types of surgeries for patients from all across Atlantic Canada at the QEII Health Sciences Centre. Our specialized anesthesiologists collaborate with surgeons and patients to ensure the highest quality care is provided. They also take part in research projects in collaboration with other Canadian transplant centres to advance the field of transplantation anesthesia.

Women’s and obstetric anesthesia provides comprehensive anesthesia services for maternal, breast health and non-oncology gynaecology patients at IWK Health and the QEII Health Sciences Centre, including tertiary high-risk obstetric and neonatal referrals for the Maritime provinces. Faculty members are active teachers and researchers, focusing on women’s post-operative pain.