Pediatric Anesthesiology

Lurie Children’s Department of Anesthesiology administers more than 15,000 anesthetics a year to treat children with all types of conditions. The department provides safe and state-of-the art sedation, pain management, critical care and surgical anesthesia for procedures using the highest standards in medicine. The department is a national leader of research into drugs, equipment and techniques to increase the safety of administering anesthesia to children.

About Pediatric Anesthesiologists

Anesthesiologists are trained in all aspects of perioperative care. This includes the preoperative assessment of a patient, the optimization of fitness for surgery, the intra-operative management of anesthesia and the post-operative care of surgical patients.

A general anesthesiologist is a trained physician who has completed a medical degree and has undergone a one-year internship followed by a three-year residency program in the practice of anesthesiology. Although all anesthesia training programs include some training in pediatric anesthesiology, their brief exposure to the care of children does not certify that a physician with this training is truly qualified as a pediatric anesthesiologist.

However, a pediatric anesthesiologist, in addition to finishing general training in anesthesiology, successfully completes an additional specialized year of fellowship training in pediatric anesthesiology at an accredited institution.

Pediatric anesthesiologists also train in the management of intensive care patients and the treatment of post-operative and chronic pain. Our pediatric fellowship is an intensive experience in the administration of anesthesia to newborns, premature infants, toddlers and older children. Upon completion of the fellowship, the anesthesiologist typically enters a pediatric-based anesthesiology practice to maintain and further refine their skills.

Approach 

Pediatric anesthesiologists are best equipped to safely care for children, especially babies and toddlers, because of their specialized understanding of how children’s bodies work, how children react to medications and anesthesia and how the illnesses children suffer from differ from those in older patients.

We also offer specialized programs, including:

• Pre-operative consults  
• Post-operative pain relief
• Chronic pain services
• Patient-controlled analgesia