Residents rotate at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center operating rooms each year of their training, providing anesthesia care to the unique veteran population. The hospital is one of the newest VA facilities in the country, with the first operation and anesthetic performed there in June of 2008. State-of-the-art equipment, large operating suites, a magnificent intensive care unit, and a modern and beautiful work environment are just some of the reasons why it is a popular rotation among the residents. Busy services in orthopedics and reconstructive surgery provide our residents with numerous opportunities to perform regional anesthesia, long considered one of the highlights of the VA rotation.
Over 700 peripheral nerve blocks have been performed here in each of the last 4 years. Major abdominal and thoracic surgery also provides the resident opportunities to perform thoracic epidural anesthesia and analgesia. A state-of-the-art endovascular operating room suite is one of the more spectacular rooms at the VA, and is where our residents deliver anesthesia for endovascular aortic aneurysm repair and carotid stenting. The VA rotation has its own morning conference Monday through Thursday, where faculty members give didactic instruction before the start of the day’s surgery schedule. On Friday, residents and faculty attend a combined surgery-anesthesia morbidity and mortality conference on site. Jesse Brown VA recently opened a full-service interventional pain medicine clinic. Residents and fellows in the department rotate here monthly, and perform interventional procedures both in the clinic and in the operating room.
