Anaesthesia & Surgical Intensive Care

The Department of Anaesthesia & Surgical Intensive Care at Changi General Hospital (CGH) is responsible for providing anaesthesia for surgery in the operating theatres.

Our staff in the Preoperative Anaesthesia Assessment Clinic (PAAC) reviews all patients prior to elective surgery and procedures requiring anaesthesia support. The anaesthetists and intensivists also manage critically ill patients in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU). Our anaesthetists are trained both locally and overseas in various subspecialties of anaesthetic care.

The Acute Pain Service team manages acute pain after major surgery or trauma. This service is co-ordinated by our specialist anaesthetists and acute pain service nurses in collaboration with our surgical colleagues, ward nurses, physiotherapists and pharmacists. Pain relief is managed using various modalities of treatment and equipment such as Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) with opioids, Epidural Analgesia and various types of nerve blocks.

The department also provides a Chronic Pain Service for patients who suffer from persistent or chronic pain conditions. Treatment options may include:

• Pain medication
• Advice and instruction on exercises/physiotherapy
• Education and advice about pain issues (including anxiety, depression, coping with pain, rehabilitation advice, medication review)
• Psychological counselling
• Interventional therapies including epidural , facet joint injections/denervation, nerve & nerve root blocks, trigger point injections, sympathetic blocks, botox injections
• Other holistic treatments as indicated including acupuncture