The cardiothoracic surgical suite consists of a 10-bed Preoperative/Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, six-operating rooms and an adjacent 17-bed intensive care unit located in Barnes- Jewish Hospital. These facilities are among the nation’s most advanced and include up-to-date transesophageal echocardiography equipment in all cardiac operating rooms. The Division also has one of the world’s first on-site coagulation monitoring laboratories.
Washington University School of Medicine is a large provider of cardiothoracic surgery in the Midwest with broad referral base across several adjoining states. In addition, there is an international referral base for complex thoracic and cardiac procedures including lung volume reduction surgery, lung transplantation, thoracic cancer surgery, and cardiac arrhythmia surgery. The clinical enviroment is noted for its multidisciplinary approach to patient care that includes easy collaboration with faculty from critical care, surgery, cardiology, pulmonary, and radiology Divisions and Departments.
Critical care training is divided among several intensive care units in addition to the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit. Other training rotations occur in the Surgical Intensive Care/Burn/Trauma Unit, the Medical Intensive Care Unit, the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, and the Neurology and Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit. Elective rotations are available in echocardiography, bronchoscopy/pulmonary medicine, infectious disease, and trauma surgery.
The Department of Anesthesiology is one of the leading research Anesthesiology Departments in the country. It is consistently ranked in the top 10 for research funding by the National Institutes of Health. Internationally recognized areas of research include basic mechanisms of anesthesia and pain, ion channel physiology, vascular biology, hypoxic cell death, sepsis, and organ dysfunction. Recognized areas of clinical research include neurologic complications of cardiac surgery, cardiac arrhythmia management, blood sugar control, and sleep apnea.