Anesthesiologist Description

An anesthesiologist is a physician who administers medication to prevent patients from feeling pain. It may be for chronic pain relief or for trauma patients, but most often they provide their services for surgery. Anesthesiologists receive many years of very specialized education and practical experience.

Duties

• The primary responsibilities of most anesthesiologists revolve around administering anesthesia during surgery. Other settings include consultation and remediation of pain from chronic conditions and in emergency rooms and trauma centers where they help victims of drug overdoses, sudden illnesses, or serious injury.

Surgery

• Before undergoing surgery, patients usually meet with an anesthesiologist who reviews the patient's history and medical condition. The doctor advises the patient about whether to suspend any existing medications and determines the best methods to use for the surgical procedure.

  During surgery, the anesthesiologist administers the anesthesia and monitors the patient's vital signs, making any adjustments required. At the end of the procedure, the anesthesiologist uses medications to reverse the effects of the anesthesia and monitors the patient's progress in the recovery room.

Anesthesia

• There are several types of medications that an anesthesiologist may administer. General anesthesia makes patients unconscious when injected intravenously or breathed in through a mask in a gaseous form. Injections of regional and local anesthetics numb an area of the body or a specific body part while the patient remains awake. The doctor may also give patients oral or injected sedatives to help them relax or fall asleep during the procedure.

Medical Education

• Pre-med students usually complete a four-year undergraduate degree in a scientific field before entering medical school, which requires another four years to complete. Aside from intense classroom instruction in all aspects of medicine, advanced medical students perform rotations where they see patients under the supervision of licensed physicians in a variety of specialties. Following graduation, the candidates must pass their state medical licensing examination and serve as residents until they are board-certified in their chosen medical specialty.

Specialized Training

• Residency requirements vary according to the doctor's chosen specialty. Anesthesiologists typically complete four years of internship and residency, concentrating on the specifics of pharmacology and the administration and effects of anesthesia, as well as all aspects of internal medicine and surgery. The anesthesiologists may choose a specialty category within the field such as neurosurgical anesthesiology, which requires even more specialized training.

Salary

• Anesthesiologists make up about 5 percent of the nearly 600,000 physicians in the United States. Their median salary in 2008 was $212,000, compared with primary care physicians who averaged $186,000 and all specialists whose median salary was $340,000.