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:

• Oral pain medication
• Advice and instruction on exercises and other forms of physiotherapies
• Education and advice about pain issues (anxiety, depression, coping with pain, rehabilitation advice, medication review)
• Epidural injection
• Facet joint injection and facet joint denervation
• Nerve root blocks
• Peripheral nerve blocks
• Sympathetic blocks (stellate ganglion, coeliac plexus, lumbar sympathectomy)
• Trigger point injections (including botox)

Clinical Services

We provide perioperative anaesthesia care for patients undergoing:

• Dental surgery
• Electroconvulsive therapy
• Endoscopic Procedures
• General surgery
• Hepatobiliary surgery
• Maxillofacial surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopaedic surgery
• Otorhinolaryngology
• Plastic surgery
• Radiological procedures
• Urological surgery
• Vascular surgery

We also provide a chronic pain service for patients who suffer from persistent pain such as:

• Chronic low back pain, thoracic, and neck pain
• Sciatica and other spinal nerve problems / spinal injuries
• Muscle pain (sprain, fibromyalgia, muscular tender points)
• Neuralgia (nerve-related pain problems like shingles, diabetic neuropathy or injured peripheral nerves)
• Osteoarthritis affecting joints (hip, knee, ankle, shoulder, elbow, wrist)
• Cancer pain