Our profile
The "Surgical Clinic" anaesthesia outpatient clinic is one of the two outpatient clinics run by the Clinic for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine for the purpose of anaesthesiological pre-examination ("premedication"), including minor instrumental examinations (such as ECG) of patients in the
- general and visceral surgery (C I),
- vascular and thoracic surgery (C II),
- Trauma, hand, plastic and reconstructive surgery (C III)
- Neurosurgery (C V)
is operated.
Outpatient registration:
We are available for you at the following times:
Monday - Thursday | 08:30 - 16:00 |
Friday | 08:30 - 14:00 |
What you should know ...
Before carrying out a planned operation, it is very important for the anaesthetist to get an idea of your state of health and physical condition. This examination usually takes place in the anaesthesia outpatient clinic directly after the surgical consultation.
You will be asked to complete a questionnaire, which you will then go through again with the anaesthetist. Special points that are important to you will also be discussed. The anaesthetist will also examine your lungs and heart.
If you are taking medication, it is helpful if you bring a list with the dosage with you.
We would also like to ask you to bring any findings and examination results (e.g. X-rays, ECG, laboratory results, etc.) obtained by your GP or other colleagues to avoid multiple examinations.
Based on the findings, the anaesthetist will advise you and work with you to determine the safest and most comfortable form of anaesthesia for you.
Please do not forget:
- Medication
- Findings from your family doctor
Please contact
- Tel. 0731 500-60063
- Fax 0731 500-60067
Cardioanaesthesiology
Whether in an emergency or planned - we provide round-the-clock anaesthesiological support and care for cardiac surgery patients before, during and after heart surgery. Due to the high demands, these anaesthesias are carried out by anaesthetists with many years of experience in cardiac anaesthesia.
We ensure safe anaesthesia and monitor and control vital organ functions, not only for the classic surgical approach, the sternotomy, but also for innovative minimally invasive surgical techniques and the implantation of left and right ventricular heart replacement procedures (LVAD, RVAD). Close communication with the cardiac surgeons and cardiotechnicians is a prerequisite for the success of our work, especially during heart surgery.
We induce anaesthesia in a preparation room immediately before the operation and establish the necessary monitoring measures. In addition to invasive arterial blood pressure measurement, the bispectral index, transoesophageal echocardiography, pulmonary artery catheterisation and near-infrared spectroscopy are regularly used, whereby we can combine these methods with each other and, if necessary, expand them at any time. A doctor from our section and a specialist nurse for anaesthesia are present at all times.
Even after the operation, in the intensive care unit, specially trained staff are available around the clock to care for our patients.
Research & Teaching
In addition to clinical work, we are also responsible for training, which we take care of from medical students to medical colleagues.
Research & Teaching
As part of their medical studies, students can attend lectures on cardioanaesthesia and get to know our field of work during cardiac surgery. Our employees were also significantly involved in the development of the 3D heart at the University of Ulm. Aspiring anaesthetists can complete 1 year of their specialist training with us. Weekly training courses are organised within the department.
We run regular courses for external colleagues to obtain the 'TEE in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine' certification from the German Society for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI). There are successful rotation programmes with clinics in the surrounding area.
Our employees regularly publish articles in scientific journals and give lectures and present at national and international congresses; a current research focus is the modulation of the inflammatory reaction with the help of the Cytosorb© filter as well as research in the field of university teaching and didactics.
Our commitment to teaching
Teaching is very important to us. For this reason, OA PD Dr med. Wolfgang Öchsner, who has the additional qualification "Master of Medical Education" , has been entrusted with the diverse tasks of teaching and examination officer : Establishment and further development of subject-specific curricula for the section's courses, development of working documents for the teaching and learning platforms introduced throughout the faculty, networking with e-learning programmes for self-study to accompany teaching, agreement and implementation of the "Teaching target agreements" to be concluded annually with the Dean of Studies, Development of assessment and grading systems for awarding certificates, organisation and implementation of teaching events in the clinic and pre-clinic, contact person for the Dean of Studies' Office as well as for students and teaching staff within the framework of the faculty's internal evaluation and complaints management systems.
Wolfgang Öchsner is also actively involved in the development and implementation of curricular reforms and further developments as a representative of the academic service on the study commission . As a project member of the Office of the Dean of Studies, he has also been instrumental in initiating and shaping the reform process in teaching at the Faculty of Medicine Ulm, which has become necessary due to the new licensing regulations as well as ministerial and internal faculty requirements, through his work in the curriculum development working group and in the examination development department. He is also responsible for organising didactic training courses and collegial coaching in the areas of teaching and examinations.
Cardioanaesthesiology" is an exotic subject for teaching and specialist training - because it is not included in student training and is not an independent specialist field.
It is also not a training and examination area within anaesthesia specialist training. For this reason, many anaesthetists want to learn the special features of circulatory diagnostics and therapy in patients with genuine heart disease after they have qualified as specialists, either as part of a work shadowing programme or as a member of our team.
This is what makes the section so attractive for medical colleagues. In particular, the use of invasive monitoring procedures (including pulmonary artery catheters), monitoring using transoesophageal echocardiography and differential therapy with substances that have a circulatory effect are sought-after training modules.
Since the department was founded in 1997, we have been working systematically to develop our own programme of courses for students. There is hardly any other field in which the application of many basic sciences can be experienced as closely as in cardioanaesthesiology: the principles of circulatory regulation, as taught in physiology and pharmacology, are also the basis of our circulatory therapy; the principles of physics are decisive for our monitoring procedures; the anatomy of the heart and coronary vessels can be observed in the operating theatre in an enormously standardised way on a daily basis.
We are therefore confident that, with the clinical spectrum of our daily work and our existing experience, we can also offer students a lot of interesting and helpful teaching content and provide an excellent in-depth knowledge of cardiovascular function. Students in the preclinical semesters can also benefit in the long term - combining the preclinical material from the first semesters with clinically relevant examples from our work can help to better understand the "grey theory" and show how basic knowledge can be used to answer practical questions.
In January 2018, the Faculty of Medicine was one of the first medical faculties in Germany to open a VR lab for medical students on level five of the new surgery building. Students can explore complex organ structures in the virtual world, either stereoscopically or using VR glasses. At the same time, these new technical possibilities have also opened up completely new worlds for surgical applications: With the help of 3D glasses, doctors can see the inside of the heart spatially during minimally invasive heart operations - which allows defective heart valves to be operated on via a tiny access route, guided by the screen. This technological leap in medicine is explained in detail in a 360-degree report by the Süddeutsche Zeitung. For the documentary, a reporter visited Ulm University Hospital and the newly opened Virtual Reality Lab at the Faculty of Medicine on Thursday, 29 March 2018. You can watch the 360-degree report under this link to watch it.
Paediatric anaesthesia
At Ulm University Hospital, we perform around 3,500 anaesthetics on children under the age of 18 every year. We care for the smallest premature babies weighing less than 500 grams as well as young adults. With our competent team, we are at the side of our young patients during operations and diagnostic procedures for which anaesthesia is necessary. All team members, both doctors and nurses, are experienced in dealing with children's fears and parents' worries. Everyone endeavours to make the time in hospital as pleasant as possible for the child and parents. Our aim is to ensure maximum safety, freedom from pain and anxiety and comfort for the child. A decisive factor in this is taking into account the special requirements for optimum child- and parent-orientated care.
During a preliminary anaesthetic consultation, we will discuss all the details and possibilities of anaesthesia with you and your child. One of our main aims is to take away your child's fear of anaesthesia during the preliminary consultation by involving your child and dealing with each child individually. All questions are answered and the optimal concept is determined. At the end of the preliminary consultation, you and your child give us your consent for the anaesthetic to be carried out.
During the operation, our team, consisting of an anaesthetist and a nurse anaesthetist, will look after your child. All team members are experienced in anaesthetising children. They will ensure that your child falls asleep relaxed, that the anaesthetic is stable and that they wake up pain-free.
What do my child and I need to consider?
To avoid complications caused by a full stomach, your child must not eat or drink anything for a certain period of time before the anaesthetic. Your anaesthetist will tell you the exact fasting times for your child. In general, the following rules apply:
All children may and should drink clear liquids (water, tea, clear juice spritzers) up to 1 hour before the start of the operation.
Newborns and infants may be breastfed (breast milk) up to 3 hours before the anaesthetic or bottle-fed ("formula milk") up to 4 hours beforehand.
All children may drink all types of milk (e.g. cow's milk, chocolate/strawberry milk) up to 4 hours before the anaesthetic.
All children may eat up to 6 hours before anaesthesia (solid meal).
After the anaesthetic, children may drink again (e.g. water, tea, spritzer, milk etc.) as soon as they are awake and like it. If this is well tolerated, they may also eat. There are exceptions to this for a few operations, which you will be informed about in the recovery room.