Safe anaesthesia for every procedure

At the German Heart Center Berlin we have one clear goal: to minimize the periprocedural burden of your surgery and to ensure maximal patient safety. We want to help you to return to your everyday life as soon as possible.

Our experienced team of doctors and nurses is available around the clock to support patients with both modern and innovative anesthesia practices enabled by the latest in medical technology. Our highly qualified specialists are trained to the highest standards and are committed to lifelong learning to provide the best care for our patients. All medical staff in the department are fully qualified in transesophageal echocardiography (ultrasound examination of the heart) and are always available with their expertise to support their surgical and interventional cardiology colleagues. During cardiac surgery in particular, anesthesiologists and surgeons work in a professional partnership to achieve a common goal: your health.

The term "anesthesia" comes from ancient Greek and means insensitivity. In medicine, this is thought to mean the elimination of certain sensory qualities, in particular the sensation of pain and touch. Not every form of anesthesia necessarily leads to a loss of consciousness. While conventional cardiac surgery requires opening the chest to gain access to the heart and use of the heart-lung machine and are therefore carried out under general anesthesia, catheter-based procedures such as minimally invasive replacement of the aortic valve or the so-called MitraClip procedure for the treatment of mitral valve insufficiency can also be performed under local anesthesia or in a painless twilight sleep called sedation. For most operations and interventions, we need access to your blood vessels to monitor your cardiovascular functions and to titrate intravenous therapies. These are small, thin tubes made of plastic that are safely and painlessly placed in blood vessels using ultrasound, primarily on the wrists, one side of the neck or in the groin. This is performed either under local anesthesia or, in the case of planned general anesthesia, only after the anesthesia has been initiated. With all general anesthesia, we monitor your depth of anesthesia throughout, so that intraoperative alertness or too profound unconsciousness are avoided.

Regardless of the procedure chosen, rapid mobilization is particularly important to us. That is why a large proportion of the interventions at our center are planned as “fast-track” using minimally invasive surgical techniques combined with short-acting anesthetics to enhance and promote recovery and convalescence.

You are in good hands.