The Department of Anesthesiology is unique in its structures, its functioning and the ongoing monitoring of patient care.  The Department is equipped with a state-of-the-art anesthesia delivery system, which is second to none in the entire Middle East.  Our open-heart pediatric anesthesia service, heart and lung transplantation service and management of difficult airways procedure are the hallmark of the department. The main anesthesia activity takes place in the seven operating rooms currently in use.  While the operating room function has had to keep pace with the overall growth of the Hospital and its increase in inpatient beds, the department is currently able to efficiently respond, rendering highly specialized anesthesia care to all specialties including open heart surgery, neonatology, pediatrics, neurosurgery, ENT, general surgery and obstetrics/gynecology. Anesthesia service is also provided to patients in other hospital departments, including Radiology, Endoscopy, Obstetrics, Catheterisation Lab, IVF and the Pre-Anesthesia Clinic.

Special Programs

The Department of Anesthesiology operates a well-organized pain clinic under the directorship of Dr. Osama Al Ahdal.  Specializing in the control of acute and chronic pain, the Acute Pain Service Clinic was originally established to provide relief of post-surgical pain using modern methods of acute pain management that invariably lead to shorter hospital stays. Management of cancer pain is one of the most important functions of this clinic and only the most modern modalities of treatment are used to alleviate this type of pain.  Patients with persistent pain of any kind are assessed and treated with excellent up-to-date techniques and the clinic has an excellent record in successfully reducing the reliance of their patients on excessive and potentially addictive medications. ANESTHESIA AUXILIARY DEPARTMENT The Anesthesia auxiliary department is an extended arm of anesthesiology. The work force comprises of highly trained assistants called anesthesia technicians. The role of the anesthesia technician is to assist the anesthesiologists in the preparation and application of the equipment and supplies required for administration of anesthesia. We are actively facilitating anesthesiologists in establishing non-invasive and invasive monitoring for various surgical procedures especially during open-heart surgeries, transplant and high-risk patients. In order to cope with the complex and complicated cases, we maintain various types of anesthesia carts including difficult airway cart, regional anesthesia cart and malignant hyperthermia cart. We also maintain complete anesthesia setup outside the main operating room in other hospital departments including cardiac cathertisation lab, endoscopy, lithotripsy, dental, radiology, ART, and obstetrics. In collaboration with academic and training affairs department, we are running an anesthesia technician diploma program for two and a half years. The first group have successfully completed the program.  The program is accredited by the Saudi Council for health specialties.