Dr. Carmen Elena Hernandez

Dr. Carmen Elena Hernandez is an anesthesiologist with over 16 years of clinical experience, practicing at Hospital de Clinicas Caracas — one of Venezuela's oldest and most established private hospitals, with a long history of providing high-quality specialist surgical care in the capital. As an anesthesiologist, Dr. Hernandez plays a central role in the perioperative care of surgical patients, providing pre-operative assessment, intraoperative anesthetic management, and post-anesthesia recovery care for a wide range of surgical specialties including general surgery, orthopedics, cardiothoracic surgery, and obstetrics. She has developed particular expertise in regional and neuraxial anesthesia techniques — including spinal, epidural, and peripheral nerve blocks — that offer patients alternatives to general anesthesia with improved pain control and faster recovery. Chronic pain management is an additional clinical focus, addressing patients with persistent pain conditions who require specialist interventional and pharmacological pain therapy.

Dr. Hernandez earned her Médico Cirujano (MD) from the Facultad de Medicina of the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) — the country's premier academic medical institution. She completed her anesthesiology specialty training (Residencia Médica en Anestesiología) at UCV, earning her Especialista en Anestesiología designation through the Venezuelan national specialty certification system. This three-year residency program provided supervised clinical training in all major anesthetic modalities including general anesthesia, neuraxial techniques, regional anesthesia, pediatric anesthesia, and critical care anesthesia. She additionally obtained the Diploma en Algología y Alivio del Dolor (DAAPM) — a Venezuelan specialty diploma in pain medicine — from the Sociedad Venezolana para el Estudio del Dolor (SVED), the national pain medicine professional body, reflecting dedicated postgraduate training in chronic pain assessment and management.

Dr. Hernandez's anesthesiology practice spans intraoperative anesthetic care, perioperative management, and chronic pain. General anesthesia management covers a broad surgical case mix including abdominal, orthopedic, thoracic, and neurosurgical cases, using both inhalational and total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) techniques. Regional and neuraxial anesthesia is a particular strength: she performs spinal and epidural anesthesia for lower limb, abdominal, and obstetric cases, as well as ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve blocks for orthopedic and extremity surgeries. Obstetric anesthesia — including epidural analgesia for labor and spinal anesthesia for cesarean section — is a high-volume component of her practice at Hospital de Clinicas. In chronic pain management, she performs nerve block injections, epidural steroid injections, and trigger point therapy for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, neuropathic pain, and post-surgical pain syndromes.

Hospital de Clinicas Caracas is one of Venezuela's longest-established private hospitals and has historically served Caracas's expatriate community and international patients seeking private surgical care. The private hospital sector in Venezuela maintains reasonable standards of anesthesia and surgical care in facilities separate from the resource constraints affecting the public hospital system. International patients having elective surgery in Caracas can expect pre-operative anesthesia consultations and high-quality intraoperative management from experienced specialist anesthesiologists. International patients should consult current Venezuela travel advisories from their government before planning medical travel. Dr. Hernandez consults in Spanish and has medical English capability for communication with international patients and referring physicians.

Dr. Hernandez's Diploma en Algología y Alivio del Dolor (DAAPM) reflects specialist recognition from the Sociedad Venezolana para el Estudio del Dolor in the emerging field of pain medicine. Her active participation in the Sociedad Venezolana de Anestesiología (SOVAES) — Venezuela's national anesthesiology professional body — demonstrates engagement with national clinical standards and continuing medical education. Her practice at Hospital de Clinicas Caracas — a private institution with sustained quality standards over many decades — reflects institutional confidence in her expertise. She has participated in Latin American regional anesthesiology congresses, including those of the Confederación Latinoamericana de Sociedades de Anestesiología (CLASA).