Vermont Medicine Magazine
DEPARTMENT OF Anesthesiology ~ 2012 Annual Report
Selected Highlights
- Three faculty members are serving in national leadership positions for clinical care, research and teaching. Donald Mathews, M.D., was recently asked to serve on the board of directors of the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia. Patrick Bender, M.D., chairs the Ultrasound Committee of the Society for Critical Care Medicine, and Francisco Grinberg, M.D., is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
- Department of Anesthesiology faculty members published research in Anesthesiology; Anesthesia and Analgesia; and Practical Pain Management.
- Robert Williams, M.D., is a co-investigator with researchers at Columbia University Medical Center on the $75,000 Carl Koller Memorial Research Grant from the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine to compare perioperative safety between regional and general anesthesia for surgery in infants.
Howard M. Schapiro, M.D.’80, Chair
The issue of whether early childhood exposure to general anesthetics may contribute to long-term effects such as learning disabilities has attracted attention nationwide. Department of Anesthesiology faculty members Robert Williams, M.D., and Ian Black, M.D., address this question in several current projects. In collaboration with the UVM Jeffords Center, they are investigating whether children who had spinal anesthesia for surgery as infants have similar subsequent school performance as children who did not have surgery during infancy.
In another study, in collaboration with Columbia University, Dr. Williams and Dr. Black compare postoperative complication rates in infant surgery. Both of these studies are possible because of the Vermont Infant Spinal Registry, a database that was initiated at UVM in 1979 and now includes more than 2,000 subjects, making it the largest repository of data in this population.
This past year the department also began participating in the GAS study, a five-year, National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored clinical trial of general versus spinal anesthesia for infant hernia repair surgery. This multicenter trial attempts to answer the outcome question with a prospective, randomized comparison of anesthesia techniques, the results will not be available for several years.
Building on our experience with spinal anesthesia and installation of an electronic anesthesia information system in 2007, William Paganelli, M.D., Ph.D., is working on a study of the incidence of multiple anesthesia exposures in children. This project is one of two with the Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group, and will leverage the data contributed by more than 20 academic medical centers to examine children who undergo repeated surgeries. Dr. Paganelli is also collaborating with the University of Michigan to develop AlertWatch, an anesthesia quality and safety system that integrates realtime patient physiologic data with known risk factors and evidence-based medicine to guide clinical management of patients during surgery.
Vincent Miller, M.D., continues his work at the Clinical Simulation Laboratory, where he is teaching medical students and residents. He leads several simulation-based research studies including one using a mannequin to teach intubation skills and airway management to third-year medical students.
Last modified January 24 2013 09:37 AM
