His role should extend beyond anaesthesia to function as a perioperative physician, SOPPA says
HYDERABAD, Mar 16 (The CONNECT)- An anaesthesiologist is just not a specialist to administers pain management drugs during a surgery. He can also be a competent physician during the operation period or perioperative time.
This was the consensus at a half-day scientific programme held by the Society of Perioperative Physician Anaesthesiologists (SOPPA) held at KIMS Hospital here on Sunday.
SOPPA, India’s first such organisation, was formed in Hyderabad in August 2024 with over 120 anaesthesiologists.
Prof (Dr) N Satyanarayana, President of SOPPA, said every Anaesthesiologist should be capable of managing common comorbid conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, lung infections, COPD, and other diseases in patients, both before and after surgery.
Their role should extend beyond anaesthesia to function as a perioperative physician, he said.
Anaesthesiologists are inherently trained as physicians, but there is no uniformity in their practice across the country. In postgraduate training programmes, the curriculum includes case discussions and clinical scenarios that cover the management of comorbid diseases.
Dr Satyanarayana added the role of anaesthesiologists as perioperative physicians is currently limited to individual practitioners or certain institutions, with no standardized approach nationwide. Specialist consultations are typically sought only for critically ill patients, major surgeries, or medico-legal concerns.
Dr Raja Narsing Rao, Secretary of SOPPA, said an anaesthesiologist is a perioperative physician who manages a patient’s care before, during, and after surgery. They are responsible for the patient’s overall medical management throughout the perioperative period, he said
Currently, the common practice in hospitals is for surgeons to refer patients with co-morbidities to specialists such as general physicians, cardiologists, or pulmonologists to assess their fitness for surgery. These specialists evaluate fitness based solely on disease severity, often without considering aesthetic drugs, their interactions, potential complications, or the impact of different aesthetic techniques on comorbid conditions, he said.
In contrast, anaesthesiologists, due to their physician training, are well-versed in the medications used for comorbid conditions and their interactions with aesthetic drugs, Dr Rao pointed out.
Advantages of anaesthesiologists as perioperative physicians are huge. A significant advantage of anaesthesiologists serving as perioperative physicians is their expertise in drug interactions. Medications prescribed for comorbid conditions can interact with anaesthetic drugs, leading to potential complications, Dr Rao said.
Many speakers said they would like to recommend to the National Medical Council (NMC) that anaesthesiologists be formally recognised as competent physicians. “We will not stop there. We will work further to strengthen legal recognition by advocating in courts, based on NMC acknowledgment, that anaesthesiologists are qualified to manage mild to moderate comorbid conditions,” said a prominent anaesthesiologist.
