At Penn Medicine’s Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, individuals undergoing neurosurgery receive care from a team that includes:
- The neurosurgeon
- Neuroanesthesiologists
- Neurologists
- The neuromonitoring team
- The neurocritical care team
Members of the Division of Neuroanesthesia are experts in providing anesthesia for neurosurgical procedures varying from straightforward to complex.
Procedures Receiving Neuroanesthesia Care
We provide anesthesia for brain surgery due to:
- tumors
- blood vessel malformations
- aneurysms
- occluded arteries
- trauma
- complex spinal procedures
Our expert physicians administer anesthesia in the general neurosurgical operating rooms and in the neurointerventional radiology suites. Patients in all areas also have advanced neuromonitoring available to help the neurosurgeons and neuroanesthesiologists provide a safer level of care.
Neuroanesthesia Expertise
Neuroanesthesia and neurology specialists work closely with the neurosurgeons. This provides a strong continuum of acute care for patients and delivers the finest neurocritical services. It also promotes collaborations that enhance our clinical results while supporting our educational and research missions.
The neuroanesthesiologist helps achieve optimal operating conditions for the neurosurgeon while ensuring the patient maintains unconsciousness, good brain blood flow and oxygen levels, and receives appropriate pain management during and after the procedure.
Our experts sometimes tailor a special anesthetic mix to allow for brain or spinal cord monitoring while still meeting the goals of anesthesia and surgery. Similarly, if the neurosurgeon needs to have the patient awake and able to follow commands during the procedure, our physicians are skilled at creating another special mix of sedatives and monitors to allow the operation to proceed successfully. Our neuroanesthesia group is highly experienced in the provision of anesthesia for these and other such challenging situations.