Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 8/5/2010

Question
QUESTION: What role does an Anesthesiologist play in Intensive care compared to an Anesthesiologist-Intensivist? How much an Anesthesiologist can do on his/her own in Intensive care or is he/she is only limited to OR,OB,Pain Management etc  unless have critical care fellowship to be in Intensive Care.

Thank You



ANSWER: While an anesthesiologist can get a subspecialty board certification in Critical care, that doesn't mean that a regular anesthesiologist doesn't play a role. While regular anesthesiologists don't usually cover the ICU exclusively, they certainly do take care of these patients in the OR and in the perioperative period. So perhaps I am not understanding your question. If you want to rephrase it, I'll be happy to clarify.


Ronald Levy, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: 1.Can an anesthesiologist be an ICU Physician or an anesthesiologist cover ICU only for post surgery patients and other procedures and not for other medical problems ?

2. Would it be OK to say that being an anesthesiologist would mean one would be involved in ICU one way or the other, whether exclusively or not but ICU is part of it ?

Thank You





ANSWER: As I mentioned above, it depends on how the hospital is set up. If there are no other intensivists in the hospital, then it falls to the anesthesiologist. Generally a surgical ICU woudl be covered by a single individual .Medical ICU is a different situation and is usually covered by an intensivist. It is very hard to answer your question. Is there a particular reason you are asking this question?


Ronald Levy, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My primary interest is intensive/critical care medicine irrespective of MICU or SICU. As we have different ways to intensive care : IM/CC, IM and Pulm/CC and Anesthesiology/CC. How should one approach? As anesthesiology is closely related to intensive care, does it give any leverage or it depends on the situation ?

Thank You


Answer
If your interest is primarily CC then you are probably better off going the IM/cc or Pulmonary/CC route. (BTW, there is also the surgery/CC route). Going the anesthesia route does not give leverage (actually, probably the opposite). Most ICUs are not run by anesthesia. Generally the people who go the anesthesia route also want to give anesthesia in the OR in addition to CC.

Ronald Levy, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston