Department of Cardiac Anesthesiology

Head of Department: MUDr. Pavel Jehlička, MBA

Activities of the Department

The Department covers two basic areas, namely anesthesia care for cardiac surgery and cardiology and also intensive care for the cardiac surgery postoperative unit.

Anesthesia care

We provide anaesthesia care for patients undergoing either cardiac surgery, with or without extracorporeal circulation, or cardiac robot-assisted surgery with a minimally invasive approach. For cardiology patients, the Department ensures anaesthesia for complicated heart mapping in arrhythmology, anaesthesia for the extraction of pacemaking systems, and for electrical cardioversions. In 2016, a hybrid multidisciplinary OR started its operation.

Intensive care

In the field of intensive care, the Department is responsible for operation of the cardiac surgery postoperative unit and closely cooperates also with the cardiac surgery intermediate care unit. Within our Cardiac Centre, it supports other units of intensive cardiology care by providing consultations. Together with the Department of Cardiology and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, we participate in the program of extracorporeal support of circulation for patients in cardiogenic shock.

In 2004, the physicians of the Department of Cardiac Anaesthesiology were the first to introduce extracorporeal pulmonary support in the Czech Republic (Novalung artificial lung) in a patient with a severe pulmonary failure that could not be managed by standard methods. As the only facility in the Czech Republic, the Department ensures anesthesia in robot-assisted cardiac surgeries and anesthesia for operations on adult patients with congenital heart defects.