Chair’s Message

The Department of Anesthesiology is committed to excellent clinical care of perioperative and critically ill patients, and patients requiring interventional pain treatment. We also provide a wide array of training opportunities for anesthesia residents, fellows and advanced practice providers and perform cutting-edge research in the field of perioperative medicine.

Our diverse faculty provide clinical expertise at multiple sites in both ambulatory and inpatient settings, including Memorial Hermann—Texas Medical Center, Memorial Hermann Surgery Center—Texas Medical Center, the Memorial Hermann Heart and Vascular Institute—Texas Medical Center, Harris County Health System’s Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, as well as in specialized pain management clinics.

Dr. Holger Eltzschig

Chairman and Professor, Department of Anesthesiology
Holger K. Eltzschig, MD, PhD

Our residency training program is one of the largest anesthesiology training programs in the country. In addition to hands-on clinical training in the operating room, our residents’ education is supplemented with dedicated didactic presentations from experienced faculty, weekly oral board practice with our department’s five oral board examiners, departmental grand rounds, sub-specialty didactic lecture series, and regular simulation sessions. Our anesthesia training program includes fellowships in cardiovascular, pediatrics, obstetrics, regional, neuro, trauma, and critical care.

Clinical research is being performed in airway management, coagulation abnormalities, as well as cardiac, pediatric, obstetric, regional, and trauma, and neuroanesthesia. In addition, we are performing large scale randomized clinical trials in collaboration with the Department of Emergency medicine on outcomes of patients experiencing ARDS or acute kidney injury.

Three years ago, we launched our translational research center called the Center for Perioperative Medicine, where cutting-edge research is performed to understand inflammatory responses triggered during surgery, infection, ischemia, and reperfusion injury. Our translational research team has expanded in number. We have increased our laboratory-based research platform with multiple NIH R01 grants and other federal grants. As an incentive to engage our residents in translational research, our department offers training grants and fellowships to promote the training of perioperative physician scientists.