Regional anesthesia training is a subspecialty focused on the perioperative management of patients receiving neuraxial or peripheral neural blockade for anesthesia or analgesia. This fellowship program will ensure the ongoing development of regional anesthesia as a defined subspecialty. Research activities, educational curricula, and, most importantly, clinical care is emphasized. Fellows will also have the option to extend the fellowship for an additional research year.
The University of Iowa Regional Anesthesia Fellowship program is managed by the Acute Pain and Regional Anesthesia division with Pain Medicine and Ambulatory Anesthesia and, apart from equipping the Fellow with the required technical ability and knowledge to be able and proficient to perform advanced Regional Anesthesia on a consultant level, the program has the basic philosophy of putting Fellows in a position to “trouble-shoot” Regional Anesthesia procedures and programs and to set up Regional Anesthesia programs necessary for Orthopedic Anesthesia. The emphasis is purely on acute pain management, and most regional anesthesia required for general surgery and thoracic surgery is also taught. A Fellow who completes his/her fellowship at the University of Iowa will be able to conduct high-level scientific research, be proficient with advanced Regional Anesthesia and be a consultant and teacher for other anesthesiologists interested in Regional Anesthesia. There is an emphasis on continuous nerve block and the management of acute post-operative pain with regional anesthesia. The teaching for continuous nerve blocks is to place perineural catheters by stimulating not only the needle for placing the catheter with a nerve stimulator, but by stimulating the catheter as well. This technology has been invented and developed by this program director in collaboration with a major equipment manufacturing company.
The majority of the fellowship year will be spent at UIHC on the Acute Pain Service, which has over 6,000 patient encounters per year and on the Regional Anesthesia Service, which performs over 2,400 blocks per year. In addition, fellows will be able to utilize neuraxial techniques in the operating rooms where 25 procedures, on average, are performed each week. Fellows will be exposed to a wide variety of blocks for regional pain and acute pain management including single-shot and peripheral and central neural blocks, continuous catheter techniques, ultrasound and fluoroscopy guidance, as well as other innovative approaches to perioperative pain management. In addition, fellows will also participate in perioperative pain management and regional anesthesia care of pediatric patients. Graduates of the program are expected to become highly skilled in regional and acute pain management from basic to the most challenging interventions.
Additionally, fellows actively participate in the regular On- and Off-Campus RASCI Workshops. For further information please see Regional Anesthesia Study Center of Iowa (RASCI).
The Regional Anesthesia Fellowship program is a one-year non-ACGME accredited program. The fellowship began in July 2004 and accepts two fellows per year.
The Regional Anesthesia Didactic series consists of lectures presented weekly as well as a fellow PBLD session. The educational program is designed to augment the clinical and educational experience.
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