Clinical practice

The team at the Complex Postoperative Anesthesia and Intensive Care Unit is responsible for performing various types of anesthesia for patients requiring this measure, preparing them for the event and following them until its resolution, ensuring adequate treatment of acute and chronic pain syndromes of greater clinical relevance, and administering intensive care to critically ill patients.

All types of anesthesia are practiced: general (balanced, TIVA), locoregional (central and peripheral nerve blocks, single shots and continuous), combined or integrated (general anesthesia in association with locoregional techniques) in relation to needs and according to specific reference standards to support surgical interventions (traditional orthopedics, oncological surgery, vertebral surgery, thoracopulmonary surgery), diagnostic and interventional radiology, of the emergency room, for patients of all ages, adult, neonatal and pediatric.

The organization of work involves the commitment of the components of the Service to the following activities

• Operating Rooms (14 per day for 5 days a week, 10 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, including a 'day surgery' session)
• Resuscitation and Intensive Care Unit (8 beds equipped for intensive monitoring and treatment of cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic functions according to reference standards with continuous 24-hour internal guard service for 7 days a week)
• Anesthesia clinic aimed at the preventive evaluation and preparation of complex patients, and the prescription of blood self-donation, particularly for prosthetic surgery
• Continuous anesthesiological assistance to departments for the pre- and postoperative management of surgical patients
  Scheduled anesthesiological assistance to Radiology for diagnostic purposes mainly in pediatric age and for interventional purposes
• Continuous intensive care in departments, emergency rooms and radiology 
• Assistance to the Chemotherapy department for the implantation of long-term venous access
• In the operating room and management of the intensive care and intensive care department, the Service's doctors are assisted by professional nurses with specific expertise in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine.

The Complex Postoperative Anesthesia and Intensive Care Unit collaborates with the Health Directorate in the corporate implementation of the regional Pain-Free Hospital project, aimed at managing postoperative pain through the definition of an analgesic formulary adapted to different clinical needs and the specification of application and control tools.

Research activity

The identification of research projects in which the Complex Postoperative Anesthesia and Intensive Care Unit deems its involvement appropriate stems from the need to contribute to the prevailing problems related to orthopedic surgery, represented by acute and chronic pain, good blood use, thromboembolic disease, and the optimization of day surgery performance.

In the algological field, particular emphasis is given to locoregional analgesia techniques for continuous peripheral block for the management of acute postoperative pain and chronic neuropathic pain and to multimodal analgesia techniques for major orthopedic surgery.
Regarding the problem of 'good blood use', the unit is engaged in evaluating postoperative recovery techniques to define the possibilities in terms of efficacy and performance.

In the field of thromboembolic disease, participation in polycentric clinical pharmacology studies is active for the evaluation of new molecules to be used prophylactically.

In the context of Orthopedic Day Surgery, research is oriented towards the permanent updating of locoregional anesthesia and sedation techniques aimed at maximum patient comfort and safe discharge.