Greetings
The Department of Anesthesiology at Hokkaido University Hospital serves a vital role in various fields, such as anesthesia management in the surgery room, a pain clinic, palliative care, intensive care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.Outline
Anesthesia management in the surgery room
Everyone feels anxious before surgery, but surgery itself is completed before the patient realizes it, thanks to general anesthesia.Anesthesiologists play an important role in the smooth performance of surgery without causing suffering to the patients.
The number of general anesthesia cases at Hokkaido University Hospital has always been ranking highest among former national university hospitals.
As one of the last stronghold hospitals in Hokkaido, we perform highly complicated anesthesia that used be impossible, and take pride in our contribution to medical care in Hokkaido.
For example, our hospital is Hokkaido’s only facility that accepts organ transplantation after brain death, and the number of emergency surgical procedures for newborn complex congenital heart malformations has been increasing every year.
For these anesthesia cases, teaching staff, part-time doctors and residents form a team to provide safe high-quality anesthesia based on a meticulous anesthesia plan.
Pain clinic and palliative care
At the pain clinic, we mainly provide treatment to patients who suffer from pain, but also handle facial palsy, sudden deafness and other diseases that are not related to pain.Medication, nerve block, lasers, etc. are used for treatment. We also work on oriental medicine including Chinese medicine and advanced medical care such as spinal cord stimulation.
Consultations are provided on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Only returning patients for laser treatment can be seen every day from Monday through Friday.
We have also served a member of the palliative care team formed at Hokkaido University Hospital in FY 2008.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is an approach in which patients inhale pure oxygen in a room under high pressure (hyperbaric chamber), thereby increasing the amount of oxygen in the body tens of times and improving various diseases caused by oxygen deficiency.There are only three type 2 hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers that can accommodate eight people in Hokkaido. Our hospital is the only facility with the chamber in Sapporo. It is available every day to emergency patients, and only Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to non-emergency patients.
Sports hyperbaric oxygen therapy for treating athletic injuries has been available since February 2005 (not covered by health insurance).
Intensive care
The Division of Intensive Care is run in the central clinical building under the cooperation of clinical departments. The deputy chief and many other members of the division are from the Department of Anesthesiology. Postsurgical patients, in-hospital emergency patients and patients from Emergency Service are managed here.Medical care results
Anesthesia management
General or local anesthesia for 5,121 surgical procedures was managed by the Department of Anesthesiology in FY 2014Pain clinic
The number of outpatients in FY 2013 was 3,509.Target diseases were shingles, postherpetic neuralgia, neuropathic pain and lower back/leg pain.
