Anesthesiology
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Obstetric Anesthesiology
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The faculty members of the Division of Obstetric Anesthesiology provide subspecialty care in the Labor and Delivery (L&D) Suites. Over the past year, the Division cared for nearly 2,000 parturients; thirty-one percent delivered by cesarean section. Seventy percent of women delivering vaginally received neuraxial labor analgesia. Obstetric anesthesiologists also cared for 60 patients undergoing gynecologic surgery performed in Labor and Delivery, and provided anesthesia for approximately one-third of the 100 fetal surgery cases performed at UMMC, including placental laser, fetal shunts and EXIT procedures (intubation of the neonatal trachea during continued placental perfusion). The team of obstetric anesthesiologists in the department has special expertise in the care of high-risk pregnancy.

UMMC locally serves a primarily urban population and acts as a major transport hospital for the rest of the state; eighty percent are maternal and/or fetal high-risk pregnancies, including pregnancies complicated by: super-morbid obesity; coexisting cardiac, neurosurgical, spine and respiratory disease; extreme prematurity; severe preeclampsia; diabetes; fetal disease requiring surgery; and, morbidly adherent placentation. Compared to many other academic medical centers, this high proportion of high-risk maternal cases makes University of Maryland Medical Center uniquely able to provide critical care management during pregnancy. Our obstetric anesthesiologists have continually gained substantial expertise over the years in the management of these various co-morbidities in pregnancy. Furthermore, the University of Maryland Medical Center includes the nation’s most prominent center for the care and study of patients suffering both Shock and Trauma.  The obstetric anesthesiologists and maternal-fetal medicine specialists collaborate with our colleagues in the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center during the management of any critically injured pregnant patient. 

With an increase in the number of both high risk and routine deliveries, a new Obstetrical Care Unit (OCU) opened in October 2018. The OCU is  three times larger than our previous Unit, and has increased the anesthetizing locations to 25 beds. The OCU includes a state of the art communication systems along modalities to monitor and manage any routine or high-risk pregnancy in our labor, delivery, operating and recovery rooms. The Center has been designated as a ‘Center of Excellence’ by the Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) in 2019.

Dr. Shobana Bharadwaj is the Program Director for the Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship Program. The Obstetric Anesthesiology fellow is an integral part of the perinatal care team along with Maternal-Fetal Medicine physicians and fellows, the Complex Obstetric Surgical Service directed by Dr. Ozhan Turan, and a multi-disciplinary program in simulation. Over the past 33 years, the Division of Obstetric Anesthesiology has trained over 30 fellows, many of whom have moved on to leadership roles in Obstetric Anesthesiology at other institutions. Currently, the Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship Program has trained a fellow from 2019 through 2021.

Our Division Chief of Obstetric Anesthesiology, Dr. Bhavani Shankar Kodali, has strengthened the leadership legacy of Dr. Andrew Malinow and Dr. Shobana Bharadwaj. The Division continues to set the standards for pregnancy care within the UMMC, in our University of Maryland System Hospitals and throughout the State of Maryland. For example, programmed intermittent epidural bolus (PIEB) continues to be our main labor analgesia regimen.

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