The general surgery operating rooms commonly present the anesthesiologist with some of his or her most challenging cases. Quite commonly the patient population is elderly and/or severely debilitated, with multi-system disease or organ failure. At KU we have an active general and vascular surgery practice, where the anesthesia resident may be exposed to a relatively healthy young man with appendicitis followed by a severely ill elderly female with a dissecting aortic aneurysm. The anesthesiologist must have an excellent working knowledge of physiology - from cardiac, to hepatic, to cerebral, etc.-to work in these rooms. Your experience administering anesthesia to these patients will be invaluable to your growth as a qualified anesthesia consultant.
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