In This Section

Clinical Programs

Cardiac Anesthesia

The cardiac anesthesia faculty provide care for patients undergoing traditional revascularization, open valve surgery, percutaneous valve placements (aortic and mitral), endovascular thoracic stent procedures, pulmonary thromboendarterectomies, VAD placements, total artificial heart support, and heart and / or lung transplantation. They work in close collaboration with the cardiac surgeons and cardiology faculty to ensure that well coordinated care is delivered to this complex population of patients.

Thoracic Anesthesia

The newly created department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery provides ground breaking research with innovative procedures aimed at improving the lives of patients suffering with COPD, both in the bronchoscopy suite and the operating room. Major surgical interventions include the full spectrum of open, thoracoscopic, and robotic lung and foregut procedures.

Trauma

The hospital’s premier level 1 trauma service provides coverage for most of northern Philadelphia. Admissions routinely include all forms of penetrating and non-penetrating trauma and department faculty serve on the trauma peer review and quality improvement committees.

Burn Service

The Temple Burn Center is the only specialized burn unit in the region affiliated with an academic medical center or located in a Level 1 trauma center. The sophisticated and integrated care provided to these patients requires special expertise from the anesthesiology service to address their specific issues.

Urology

The urology service supports a large volume of both routine cystoscopy-based interventions as well as advanced oncological procedures, including both open and robotic approaches. A significant number of advanced renal cell resections are completed each year requiring intraoperative coordination of multiple surgical disciplines.

Neurosurgery

The rapidly growing neurosurgical service provides treatment for patients with brain, spine and movement disorders and encompasses the full spectrum of interventional techniques including awake craniotomies, intra-operative CAT scans, gamma knife irradiation and minimally invasive rapid response stroke therapies.

Orthopedics

The orthopedic and sports medicine service maintains a steady volume of joint rehabilitation, joint replacement, pelvic and acetabular reconstruction, orthopedic trauma, and hand surgery cases. A rapidly growing preference for regional anesthetics in this patient population now requires a large volume of neuraxial and sophisticated ultrasound guided peripheral nerve blocks to be provided.

Otolaryngology

A complete range of head and neck cancer resections, facial plastic, and complex reconstructive surgeries are performed at Temple University Hospital.

General Surgery

The general surgical service provides open, laparoscopic, and robotic colorectal interventions, complex hepatobiliary surgeries, as well as liver, kidney and pancreas transplantation.

Obstetrical Anesthesia

The obstetrical service provides care for roughly 3000 laboring patients annually. The utilization rate for epidural analgesia during labor is approximately 75% and the overall rate of cesarean section tracks the national average of 30%. Within this population is a disproportionate share of women with advanced cardiopulmonary disease requiring close multidisciplinary collaboration throughout their pregnancy and, in particular, in preparation for their delivery. Approximately 10% of the obstetrical population at TUH is currently considered high risk.

Vascular

The vascular surgery service leverages the advanced capabilities of the recently constructed hybrid operating rooms to deliver cutting edge percutaneous revascularizations and interventions for aneurysmal disease.

Robotics

Temple University Hospital maintains three robotic surgical systems including two dual-console teaching configurations. These robotic systems are heavily utilized by the cardiac, general, gynecological, urological, and thoracic surgical services to push back the current boundaries of minimally invasive surgical techniques.

Non-OR Anesthesia

The most rapidly growing demand for anesthetic services is outside of traditional operating room settings. An increasing number of non-surgical disciplines are requesting departmental support to perform invasive procedures. Every day, department faculty leverage their expertise to teamwork with specialists in the endoscopy clinic, the echocardiography lab, the electrophysiology lab, the cardiac catheterization lab, the bronchoscopy suite and the interventional radiology suite.

Acute Pain

The acute pain service consists of a core group of faculty who are experts in neuraxial and peripheral nerve block techniques. As a group they collaborate with individuals from across the anesthesiology and surgical departments to determine the optimal techniques to minimize perioperative patient discomfort and the resulting limitations and complications.

Chronic Pain

The chronic pain service is currently being re-engineered to provide a greatly enhanced capacity for advanced interventions, as well as to foster the rapid-cycle cooperative relationships with primary care physicians now demanded by the prevailing models for healthcare reform.

Critical CareAppr

The department participates in the multidisciplinary critical care service which supports the various Intensive Care units throughout the health system. Efforts are currently underway to establish a multidisciplinary critical care fellowship program with joint sponsorship from the anesthesiology, surgery and pulmonary departments.