Message from Thomas W. Feeley, M.D.
Helen Shafer Fly Distinguished Professor
in Anesthesiology
Vice President, Medical Operation
Head, Division of Anesthesiology and Critical Care      

The mission of the Division of Anesthesiology and Critical Care is to provide state of the art anesthesia care, pain management and life support for cancer patients in the intensive care units.                                                    

The Division of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center was formed in 1997, combining the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine from the Division of Surgery with a newly created Department of Critical Care.  The Division is composed of those two Departments.

Patient care in the division spans from the patient’s initial evaluation in the Pre Operative Evaluation Center through the operating room or procedure area and into the post anesthesia care unit and the intensive care units. In the intensive care units a team of critical care specialists, nurses and respiratory care practitioners provide state of the art life supporting treatments for all of M. D. Anderson’s critically ill patients from the medical, surgical and pediatric services. Anesthesiologists also provide pain management services to postoperative patients and to cancer patients with a variety of pain conditions related to cancer and its treatment.  Care is provided on the in-patient services and in our pain clinic.

The Division has developed extensive teaching programs in anesthesiology, critical care, and cancer pain management. Currently, we train anesthesia residents from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Baylor College of Medicine, the United States Air Force and the Tulane University School of Medicine. In Critical Care, we train residents, fellows and students from UT Health Science Center at Houston and Baylor College of Medicine. We have an ACGME-approved fellowship-training program in pain management.

Research within the Division of Anesthesiology and Critical Care reflects the multidisciplinary nature of the larger institutional research effort. A common theme of much divisional research is to improve the management of the patient receiving cancer therapy (surgery and other therapies) and to reduce the post-treatment morbidity and mortality of this therapy.

The Division is composed of 77 faculty members whose primary medical specialties include anesthesiology, pulmonary medicine and surgery.  There are over 230 support staff including nurses, respiratory therapists, technical and clerical staff.