The Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine's Division of Cardiothoracic (CT) Anesthesia provides anesthetic care to more than 2,000 adult and pediatric patients each year, in seven cardiothoracic anesthetizing locations daily. All of our full-time divisional faculty are board certified in perioperative transesophageal echocardiography, and we perform approximately 1,400 transesophageal echocardiogram exams each year. Our division continues to expand in the research domain, building on its long history of excellence in clinical care.
The Mount Sinai Health System is a major source of referrals for aortic reconstruction and mitral valve repair. On an annual basis, our cardiac surgical colleagues manage in excess of 1,000 cases requiring cardiopulmonary bypass, of which approximately 30 percent are myocardial revascularizations; another third or so are complex and minimally invasive valve repairs; another 30 percent are divided equally between major operations on the thoracic aorta and congenital heart surgeries. The remainder include a variety of complex cases, including implantation of ventricular assist devices, surgical ventricular restorations, and cardiac transplantation.
Each year, we also provide care to approximately 300-400 adult and pediatric patients undergoing diagnostic or interventional electrophysiological procedures and pediatric cardiac catheterizations. We treat 700-800 patients annually for a variety of thoracic procedures as well. The vast majority of our thoracic cases are performed using video-assisted thoracoscopic techniques, and we always place a particular emphasis on minimally invasive procedures for all lung conditions and esophageal surgery.
Research
As a division, we are flourishing in our research. Because of the wide variety of disease states in the cardiac surgical population, ours is an environment in which almost every patient can participate in a clinical trial, if desired. Our ongoing and recently completed projects include new monitoring techniques (such as 3-D echocardiography, near infrared spectroscopy, non-invasive cardiac output monitoring, and pulse contour analysis), medical informatics, techniques specific to pediatric and geriatric cardiac anesthesia, new pharmacologic agents (new anti-hypertensive drugs, heart failure drugs, and anti-inflammatory strategies, among others), coagulation and hemostasis, platelet function monitoring, transfusion algorithms, hemostatic substances for infusion and topical use, and evaluation of new anticoagulants.