California Society of Anesthesiologists

CSA News

America’s veterans deserve the best, and safest, pain treatment

Pain is usually considered a symptom, not a life-threatening medical problem. But for Army veteran Richard Dejarnette, 52, constant excruciating pain in his right leg made his life intolerable, and he believes he wouldn’t be alive today if a physician anesthesiologist at the VA West Los Angeles Medical Center hadn’t been there to help him.

Jerry Brown doesn’t want to give doctors a cut of new tobacco tax money

Doctors have long argued that the money they receive for serving Medi-Cal patients isn’t enough to sustain a practice, leading to a shortage of medical providers willing to treat California’s poorest residents in rural communities and other pockets of the state.

Anesthesia before age 4 may have small effect on academics later

Kids who are exposed to surgical anesthesia before age four tend to have slightly lower school grades at age 16 compared to other kids, but the difference is very small and shouldn’t discourage parents from proceeding with necessary surgeries, researchers say.

Scientists design a drug that relieves pain like an opioid without some dangerous side effects

What if you could design a drug that has all the pain-relieving power of morphine but none of its dangerous or addictive side effects?

Pain doctors: Insurance companies won't cover the alternatives to opioids

Over the past decade, the US has undergone an opioid epidemic. The trend has been decades in the making.