Department of Anaesthesiology

The Department of Anaesthesiology is responsible for a wide range of functions: anaesthesia and operation assistance, trauma reception, pain treatment and palliation, organisation of acute doctor’s vehicle and medical helicopter, pressure chamber treatment and of course, research.

About us

The department conducts anaesthesia and operation assistance in the following specialities at Rigshospitalet:

Orthopaedic surgery
Ear-nose-throat surgery
Plastic and burns surgery
Dental, mouth and maxillofacial surgery
Eye surgery

In addition, the department includes the Capital Region of Denmark’s acute doctor’s vehicle, the AMK and the pressure chamber at Rigshospitalet, which helps treat decompression sickness, skin infections and patients with carbon monoxide poisoning.

The Department of Anesthesia, Surgery, and Trauma Center provides anesthesia and surgical assistance to patients who need treatment in one of the 9 departments at the HovedOrtoCentret at Rigshospitalet on Blegdamsvej. The department is one of the country's largest and covers a wide range within the field of anesthesia.

With 250 employees, the department is one of the largest in the country for Anesthesia, Surgery, and Trauma Center. The department receives patients from all parts of Denmark, and often our patients are very ill.

We have well-functioning interdisciplinary collaboration across the other departments in HovedOrtoCentret, and we have a particularly close collaboration with the Trauma Center, where we are part of the team that receives severely ill and injured patients.

Statistics for the department:

Anesthesia and surgical assistance for around 14,000 surgical procedures, of which approximately 3,900 are emergency procedures.
Additionally, we have around 3,500 patient contacts, including approximately 1,500 trauma receptions.
The hyperbaric chamber conducts around 4,500 treatments per year, of which approximately 12% are emergency treatments.
Anesthesia and surgical assistance for helicopter landings at Rigshospitalet, averaging 644 landings per year.

Trauma Centre

At the trauma centre of Rigshospitalet, the medical specialists in anaesthesiology from the department work as trauma experts, and a consultant from the department is part of the management of the trauma centre.

Teaching

The department is responsible for both clinical and basic medical education of students, doctors, nurses in training and others.

Basic education and continuing professional development has a very high priority in the department.

Courses

Three courses for anaesthesiologists are held annually:

Challenges in paediatric anaesthesia
Modern techniques for peripheral nerve blockade
Airway management for anaesthesiologists

Development

The mission of the department is to be in the front line concerning development. Lately, we have focussed on quality improvement, development of courses and further training, and information.

Management

Conditions and treatments

The main clinical responsibilities of the Department of Anaesthesiology are anaesthesia for:

Orthopaedic surgery (7 operating rooms)
Ear-nose-throat surgery, eye surgery and oral and maxillofacial surgery (8 operating rooms) with a recovery room with 5 beds and a day-surgery section with 4 beds
Plastic surgery and burns (5 operating rooms)
Breast surgery (2 operating rooms)

The Hyberbaric Chamber

Photo: Joachim Rode

A specialist in anaesthesiology attends the hyberbaric oxygenation (HBO) treatments in the Hyberbaric Chamber together with a nurse and two technicians from Hyperbaric Consult (an engineering firm).

Treatment is primarily given to patients with carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness, radiation injury after successful treatment of cancer, or wounds with healing failure. The chamber has 7 seats and can be converted into an emergency room, if needed.

Helipad

In November 2007 a helipad was opened on the roof of Rigshospitalet. at the 20th floor. A porter from the clinic is present at all landings together with a technician. In 2015 we had 582 landings, in 2016 we had 716 landings.

Trauma Team Leader

Photo: Joachim Rode

The trauma team attends severely injured patients in the level 1 Trauma Centre. The trauma team leader is a specialist in anaesthesiology, and nurse anaesthetists and junior anaesthesiologists are part of the team.

Section of Acute Pain Management

The Section of Acute Pain Management works based on projects with all aspects of acute pain based in a clinical setting The unit serves all the departments at Rigshospitalet.

The staff of the section consists of one specialist in anaesthesiology and one nurse.

Paediatric Anaesthesia

More than 2000 children are anaesthetised in the department every year. Specially trained anaesthesiologists and nurse anaesthetists manage these patients.

Academic Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care

This unit comprises all anaesthesia departments at Rigshospitalet, but is centrally coordinated from the Department of Anaesthesia in the Centre of Head and Orthopaedics.