Department of Anaesthesia

Overview

The Department of Anaethesia at TQEH provides Anaesthetic services to Surgery, Cardiology, Imaging, Psychiatry and the Pregnancy Advisory Centre. The Acute Pain Service provides advice and post-operative pain management services throughout the Hospital.

The Department is part of the SA/ NT Anaesthetic Rotation Scheme for the training of Registrars in Anaesthesia. It is engaged in teaching airway skills for Resuscitation, Ambulance staff and the Emergency Department and also involved in the assessment of rural General Practitioners for Anaesthetic privileges. The Department provides lectures and bed-side teaching sessions for third to sixth year medical students. The Department also participates in the redesign and implementation of undergraduate teaching in Anaesthesia and Pain medicine for medical Students.

Research Focus

The Department of Anaesthesia has recently joined an international trial to assess the impact of a clonidine and acetyl-salicylic acid in patients undergoing non-cardiology surgery who are at risk of a heart attack during surgery. Recruitment of patients has started.

Research activities are also focused on new techniques to provide safe and effective post-operative pain relief. A simple and safe abdominal nerve block (TAP) procedure is being compared to a standard epidural technique in a randomised controlled trial. This study has been submitted for publication.

Patient safety is also the focus of the research. The Institute recently published a case where prolonged QT interval caused severe arrhythmia during a certain anaesthesia drug in a patient with diabetes. They’re now running a study specifically investigating the effect of the drug on diabetic patients.

The department and ENT surgery are investigating the use of Dexmedetomidine to reduce the amount of bleeding in the surgical field.

Sugammadex is a relatively new and revolutionary muscle relaxant reversal agent. With the availability of this agent, the department is exploring continuous deep muscle relaxation method in laparoscopic surgery. A pilot study has started.

Staff

Head of Department

R van Wijk MD PhD FANZCA FFPMANZCA

Consultants

R Balasingam FANZCA

A Colby FANZCA

A Czuchwicki FANZCA

I Elhalawani FANZCA

K France FANZCA

T George FANZCA

C Hildyard FRCA

J Jeyadoss FANZCA

M Kha FANZCA

G Koo FANZCA

E Krishnappa FANZCA

Z Lagana FANZCA

A Laver FANZCA

R Lea FANZCA

PC Lim FANZCA

R Limb FANZCA

A Michael FANZCA

G Miller FFARCS(I) FANZCA

R Mitchell FANZCA

A Moffat FFARCS

N Nanjappa FANZCA

D Nemeth FANZCA

G Newcombe FANZCA

K Osborn FANZCA

A Rainbird FANZCA

A Rajbhoj FANZCA

V Rao Kadam FANZCA

R Sethi FANZCA

R Steiner FANZCA

V Thiruvenkatarajan FANZCA

T Visvanathan FANZCA

R Watts FRACGP

CK Wong FANZCA