Anesthesiology & Pain Management

  • A new study in rats led by Stanford Medicine researchers looked at whether ketamine’s effects depend on opioid pathways — and uncovered a surprising difference between males and females.

  • Alvin Hackel dies at 91

    The Stanford Medicine professor emeritus of anesthesiology and of pediatrics invented a transport incubator for newborns and helped establish pediatric anesthesiology as a specialty.

  • How ketamine treats depression

    In an unusual trial, Stanford Medicine researchers found that a patient’s belief that they had received ketamine, even if they didn’t, could improve their depression.

  • Richard Jaffe dies at 75

    The Stanford Medicine professor was well known for his friendly presence as well as expertise in neuroanesthesia and operating room technology.

  • Pain treatment inspired by chickens

    In a mouse study led by Stanford Medicine scientists, a drug made mammalian pain receptors more like those in birds — and more resistant to some forms of pain.

  • Lisa Wise-Faberowski dies at 57

    Lisa Wise-Faberowski, who studied a rare congenital heart condition as well as the effects of anesthesia on children’s developing brains, died at 57.

  • New chair of anesthesiology

    Bateman, a Harvard faculty member and prominent health care leader, brings his expertise as a researcher in maternal health and faculty development to Stanford.

  • Twilight sedation for spinal surgery

    Todd Alamin, an orthopaedics professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, can perform spinal surgery using conscious sedation — the kind often used in dentists’ offices. Patients recover more quickly and may have a lower risk of complications.

  • Microbial loss, ulcerative colitis linked

    Bacteria normally inhabiting healthy people’s intestines — and the anti-inflammatory metabolites these bacteria produce — are depleted in ulcerative colitis patients, a Stanford study shows.

  • Choice-based C-section pain management

    The Stanford-led research tested an approach that allowed women to choose the level of pain management they wanted during a cesarean section.

  • Bundle of cells produces pain aversion

    Pain sensation and the emotional experience of pain are not the same, and now, in mice, scientists at Stanford have found the neurons responsible for the latter.

  • Physical therapy for reducing opioid use

    Physical therapy within three months of a musculoskeletal pain diagnosis reduced patients’ risk of long-term opioid use by about 10 percent, according to a study by researchers at Stanford and Duke.