The Department of Anaesthesiology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal was started in 1972. The first open heart surgery in South India was performed at this institution. There were only two operating rooms then. Since then, the department has steadily grown becoming one of the foremost national centres of teaching and clinical excellence.

It is a busy department; providing anaesthetic services at approximately 25 different locations every day to a variety of surgeries including general surgery, orthopaedics, obstetrics and gynaecology, otorhinolaryngology, ophthalmology, maxillofacial surgery, paediatric, plastic, neuro and cardiac surgery. State of the art technology and science is being used including multimodular-monitors, newer anaesthetics, ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia and a large variety of difficult airway equipment among many others providing excellent training opportunities.

In addition to providing anaesthesia, the department also oversees a 13-bedded intensive care unit that largely caters post-surgical patients as well as other critical-status patients. The department also runs a Pain Clinic providing both acute and chronic pain-relief services. Regular and organised teaching programs with periodic evaluation, combined with plenty of hands-on clinical work ensures that the postgraduates are well-trained and confident at the end of their training period.  Our alumni have always been preferred candidates at job interviews.

The department is much sought after by prospective trainees as it stands out as an excellent teaching facility. The faculty members have clinical work commitments only to the hospital. With no private practice, the teachers dedicate themselves to both clinical work as well as teaching. Good teacher-student rapport as well as cordial interpersonal relationships ensure stress free working and learning, even with long working hours.

Ongoing evaluation by all staff, internal assessment exams and performance in the University examinations are used to select the Best Outgoing MD and DA postgraduate to receive Phaneendra Nath Thota Gold Medal in Anaesthesiology at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal every year.

Access to the state-of-the-art Simulation Centre provides the trainees excellent opportunities to train in life support skills and management of critical incidents among others. There is always a willingness to learn from one another- junior or senior, young or old. All work is patient-centric with emphasis on safety and ethics. A combination of good quality clinical work as well as academics has made it a department of national repute. 

Key Features

• One of the busiest departments at Manipal Academy of Higher Education
• Excellent infrastructure with state-of-the-art facilities
• A large amount of clinical work with quantity, quality and variety
• Emphasis on safety of patients always
• Emphasis on ethical approach and communication in patient care
• Organised teaching programme
• Curriculum covers all aspects of anaesthesia over three years, important sections being covered every two years (to cater to diploma students)
• Good teacher-student rapport
• Easy approachability of faculty
• Faculty and students take equal pride in belonging to the ‘Manipal Anaesthesia family’
• Selection of postgraduates is based on merit.
  
• Many of our alumni employed in the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand and other countries
• Alumni heading departments of Anaesthesiology, Emergency Medicine in other colleges. Some have specialized into further sub-specialties such as Cardiothoracic anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine
• A biennial Continuing Medical Education programme conducted by the department, ‘Anaesthesia Postgraduate Academic Programme – APGAP, is extremely popular among the postgraduates for its quality.

Collaborations

• The Department of Anaesthesiology has collaborations with ‘Operation Smile’ an international NGO based in the USA, to provide volunteer anaesthesia services for the repair of cleft lip and palate in underprivileged areas of our country and abroad.
• Faculty members have been on several missions in various capacities ranging from Volunteer Anaesthetist, Anaesthesia Team Leader, Field Medical Director to Regional Medical Director.

About the Area of Study

Anaesthesiology is a branch of medicine primarily aimed at providing anaesthesia to aid the conduct of surgeries on different parts of the body. This may be in the form of general anaesthesia where the patient is made unconscious for the duration of the procedure or regional anaesthesia where the part to be operated alone is made numb. The specialty of anaesthesia has grown in leaps and bounds from being an art in the days of pouring ethyl ether on a mask to a science using anaesthesia workstations. Accurate measurement and monitoring of the patient’s physiology have now made complex surgeries possible and surgeries in patients with complex physiologies safer. The mortality and morbidity that is possible with anaesthesia have become extremely low due to the advances in understanding of anaesthesia, science and technology.