Members of the VA Department of Anesthesia are involved in all aspects of adult anesthesia sub-specialty care including perioperative medicine, OR anesthesia care, critical care and pain management. VA is British Columbia’s provincial centre for a large number of surgical programs including neurosurgery, trauma surgery, urological and gynecological oncology (cancer) surgery, thoracic surgery, spine surgery, transplant surgery (liver, lung, kidney and pancreas) and complex joint reconstruction. In addition, our Cardiac Surgery program (900 to 1000 pump cases per year) is the centre for aortic reconstruction. VGH is also home to the province’s only robotic surgery program, which is utilized by our urologists, cardiac surgeons, and gynecologists.
The VA Department of Anesthesia has subspecialty Divisions and Sections designed to provide the best possible anesthesia care to our wide range of surgical patients. There are formal Divisions of Cardiac Anesthesia, Neuro Anesthesia and Thoracic Anesthesia as well as Sections of Spine, Vascular, Trauma, Hepatobiliary, Regional, Peri-operative, Major Abdominal Surgery and Airway Anesthesia. As UBCH is our site of excellence in Ambulatory and Short Stay Surgery, we also have a Section of Ambulatory and Short Stay Anesthesia.