At Duke Anesthesiology, innovation and safety come together to make your experience at Duke as easy and pain-free as possible.

We care for patients before, during, and after procedures, ranging from simple sedations for diagnostic or therapeutic procedures to providing anesthesia for complex surgical procedures.

What Anesthesiologists Do

Anesthesiologists do much more than just “put someone to sleep.” Not only do we induce amnesia and pain relief, but more critically, we support and care for the vital functions of a patient’s body during simple and complex procedures. That allows the surgeon to focus only on the operation being done.

We will see you before the procedure to assess your health condition and counsel you about the expected course of events. We care for you on a one-to-one basis during a procedure. We also care for you after your surgery in intensive care units and with pain management on the wards.

Our role extends beyond the operating room and recovery room. We work in intensive care units to help restore critically ill patients to stable condition. In childbirth, we manage the care of two persons: we provide pain relief for the mother while managing the life functions of both the mother and the baby. We are also involved in pain management, including diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic problems.

The Duke Difference

At Duke, our subspecialty care teams mean that anesthesia specialists are working with your team of doctors. For example, if you're visiting us for orthopaedic surgery, one of our orthopaedic anesthesiologists is a part of your care team from the beginning.

This helps ensure the best care for you before, during, and after your surgery.