Anaesthesia and Pain Management

Our department of anaesthesiology is committed to providing evidence-based clinical services in support of the full range of medical procedures offered at AKUH,N. Anaesthesiologists conduct comprehensive preoperative assessment and optimization for each patient, in order to ensure you receive the highest quality sedation services. Our highly trained team of professionals specialise in a variety of areas, including;Cardiothoracic anaesthesia, paediatric anaesthesia, obstetric anaesthesia and analgesia, critical care medicine, pain management. neurosurgical anaesthesia, anaesthesia for radiology, plastics and burns.

Anaesthesia clinical services

Operating rooms

The department of anaesthesia provides 24 hour coverage for 7 operating rooms.

Our operating rooms are equipped with both standard and advanced anaesthesia equipment. These include anaesthesia machines, cardiac monitors, nerve stimulators, ultrasound machines, patient monitoring devices and a wide range of airway management devices.
Operating room coverage is led by consultants. Each list has a named consultant who often works hand in hand with a resident to care for patients. There is also a dedicated anaesthesia assistant attached to each operating room who provides logistical support to the anaesthesiologist.
Post-operative care is conducted by the anaesthesiologists and a dedicated team of nurses in the post-anaesthesia care unit.

Anaesthesia clinics

These run 5 days a week led by a consultant anaesthetist. The clinic is used to pre-screen patients who have been scheduled for surgery. This allows the anaesthesia team to optimise patients in advance and thus reduce the likelihood of cancellations.
These runs hand in hand with pre-operative reviews of patients who are already admitted in the hospital wards.

Sedation

The department of anaesthesia pioneered the establishment of a sedation service in East and Central Africa to cover procedures conducted outside the operating rooms. These include:

Endoscopy
Ultrasound guided procedures (eg. Liver biopsy, kidney biopsy)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
CAT scanning
Radiotherapy/ brachytherapy
Cath Lab procedures (pace maker insertions, coronary stenting etc)
Paediatric ward procedures (intra-thecal chemotherapy, bone aspirations, change of dressings)

Pain management

The department pioneered the establishment, in the region, of a pain management clinic. Staffed by 3 anaesthesiologists with sub-specialty training in pain management. Services include:

Out patient pain management consultations
In patient acute and chronic pain management consultations
Specialised physiotherapy for chronic pain
Interventional procedures ( Regional pain management blocks)

Meet our Anaesthesia and Pain Management Specialists

Anaesthesia and pain management in the media

New procedure set to phase out the use of adult diapers

A new treatment procedure, Sacral Nerve Stimulator (SNS), to help patients with chronic dysfunction of the urinary, bowel and pelvic floor conditions has been introduced in the region at Aga Khan University Hospital.

Along the spinal cord and through the lower back, there is the sacral area. Here, nerve paths split off and go in different directions, some to the pelvic area. The muscles in the pelvic floor, urethral and anal sphincter and bladder muscles are controlled by the brain through nerves that run from the sacral area. Sensations such as fullness in the bladder, or rectum are also relayed to the brain via these nerve routes.

Rare procedure that gives hope to patients suffering from chronic pain

The Pain Management Unit at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) has introduced Neuromodulation procedure for treating patients who have chronic pain and disability. The hospital is the first in East Africa to use this mode of treatment performed on 43 patients by a multidisciplinary team of specialists who included pain medicine specialists, neurosurgeons pain management therapists and psychologists from the hospital.

The procedure is used as a last resort for both cancer and non-cancer patients when all other modes of treatment have failed. In addition, this treatment procedure is performed on patients who have been suffering from persistent pain for a period of at least two months with the underlying cause not having been found.

Your Health: Managing back pain

Dr Rajpreet Bal, Assistant Professor of Anaesthesia and Pain Management talks about managing back pain in a television health show.