Emergency medicine

Most of the emergencies that occur at the Regensburg University Hospital or on the hospital grounds are handled by the emergency team of the Clinic for Anaesthesiology. The team consists of an anaesthesiologist of the anaesthesiological ICU and an anaesthetic and intensive care nurse. Available 24 hours a day, the team delivers emergency care on site and coordinates further diagnostics and therapy. 

As a maximum care clinic, we operate two shock rooms in the interdisciplinary emergency department to accommodate emergency and intensive care patients in life-threatening conditions. The shock room alarm by the rescue control centre takes place via the 1st service of the Clinic for Anaesthesiology.

Each year, about 1,000 patients of all specialities are managed in the shock room, and some receive post-diagnostics follow-up intensive care. In the shock room,

• Patients pass from the ambulance to the hospital team,
• Vital functions are stabilised,
• Clinical and radiological diagnostics are carried out, and
• All non-deferrable surgical interventions are performed.

Interdisciplinary emergency response team

Nurses from the emergency and anaesthesiology departments as well as an interdisciplinary team of specialists in anaesthesiology, trauma surgery, general surgery, internal medicine, and radiology are available around the clock for this purpose. Specialists from other medical specialities are consulted as needed.

Care of polytrauma patients

Equipment, diagnostics and therapy meet current S3 guidelines for the care of polytrauma patients. In unstable patients, a cardiopulmonary bypass (ECMO) may be implanted in the shock chamber as indicated.

We are responsible for the restoration and stabilization of vital functions, imaging diagnostics, and the coordination of intensive care and surgical therapy. The anaesthesiologists are in close contact with the intensive care units, the blood bank, the central operating theatre, the ECMO team, and the cardiac catheterization laboratory.

Since 1993, the emergency medical centre in Regensburg-Süd has been located on the premises of the UKR. Rescue services are provided by the relief organizations Johanniter Unfallhilfe and Malteser. 

In action 3,000 times a year

Emergency physicians are recruited from various UKR clinics. Our emergency doctors are deployed about 3,000 times a year. Further information about the emergency medical centre in Regensburg-Süd can be found on the website of the  Emergency Doctors of the University of Regensburg working group

ANU Working Group of Emergency Doctors of the University of Regensburg

Since 1994, the Regensburg Air Rescue Center (LRZ), a site of the DRF Stiftung Luftrettung gemeinnützige AG, Filderstadt, has been located on the grounds of the University Hospital Regensburg. The rescue and intensive care transport helicopter "Christoph Regensburg" is stationed here and ready for service around the clock. The DRF also provides the pilots of this station.

Dual-use helicopter

The dual-use helicopter is one of the few in Germany to be used in emergency rescue operations (so-called primary missions) and in interhospital transfers (so-called secondary missions). Deployment for primary operations is carried out by the Integrated Control Centre of Regensburg's professional fire brigade and for secondary operations by the Coordination Centre for Intensive Care Transport Helicopters (KITH) at the Integrated Control Centre of the professional fire service Munich. Apart from the Regensburg control centre, primary missions are mainly flown for the control centres in Landshut, Amberg, Nordoberpfalz, and Straubing while secondary missions primarily cover the south-east region of Bavaria, but also regularly reach into other German states.

Medical crew

The helicopter's medical crew consists of an emergency doctor and an emergency paramedic. The emergency medical services have an additional training as HEMS Crew Member (Helicopter Emergency Medical Services ). They support the pilot during daytime operations and in clear weather conditions when working in the cockpit.

High-level expertise in emergencies involving children and infants

Medical staffing and organizational responsibilities are handled by the Clinic for Anaesthesiology at the Regensburg University Hospital. The emergency physicians of Christoph Regensburg are without exception specialists in anaesthesiology, who are regularly active in UKR operating theatres and intensive care units. They are also involved in the anaesthesiologic-paediatric patient management on a daily basis and therefore have a special experience in the field of paediatric emergency medicine. Christoph Regensburg is often called by the control centres in Regensburg and neighbouring rescue services in the event of emergencies involving children and infants.

Transport of the critically ill requiring a heart-lung machine (ECMO)

Another focus of the Christoph Regensburg team is the transport of critically ill patients who require a heart-lung machine (ECMO) for cardiac and/or pulmonary stabilization. The staff of the departments of anaesthesiology, internal medicine and cardiothoracic surgery as well as the cardiotechnology of the University Hospital of Regensburg possess solid expertise in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

We have established the logistical, medical, and personnel conditions so that not only the patient can be transported to the ECMO, but also the ECMO to the patient and implanted on site: after a telephone call between the delivering and the receiving physician at the University Hospital Regensburg, the team of the Christoph Regensburg is expanded to include a perfusionist and corresponding equipment and flies to the patient.

In adverse weather conditions, transport will also be ground-based. In the delivering intensive care unit, the team of Christoph Regensburg on duty implants the ECMO, thus allowing the interhospital transfer of severely ill cardiopulmonary patients under stabilized conditions.

In addition to the primary rescue services, intensive care transport helicopters, intensive care transporters, and transfer vehicles are available in Bavaria for the transport of patients requiring intensive monitoring or intensive care. Emergency doctors in the transfer vehicles are provided every two weeks by the clinics of anaesthesia and surgical intensive care at the Regensburg Barmherzige Brüder hospital and by the Clinic for Anaesthesiology at the Regensburg University Hospital.

Physician-escorted transport of ICU patients

After planning by the Integrated Control Centre of the professional fire brigade in Regensburg, the transfer physician makes a preparatory telephone call with the donor physician and then travels to the patient with the VEF. Together with an RTW from the donor hospital, the patient is taken over and transported to the accepting clinic accompanied by a doctor. Thus, physician-assisted transport of patients requiring intensive care is also possible if the ITW or staff in the dispensing clinic is not available.

The Clinic for Anaesthesiology provides the medical chief of operations for external and internal hazards and helps prepare for such hospital emergencies. In this respect, there is a close cooperation with the interdisciplinary emergency department and the UKR's office for occupational safety.

Disaster medicine seminar

For interested students, the Clinic for Anaesthesiology offers an annual seminar in "Disaster Medicine" as a compulsory subject within the framework of the human medicine degree programme. Here, the medical and organizational basis for the mass attack of injured or sick people is taught, and there is ample opportunity for hands-on activities.