24 Postoperative care including perioperative opti

Abdominal surgery The abdomen should be examined daily for excessive disten - sion, tenderness or...

Cardiovascular system Thirty per cent of patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery will have at le...

DISCHARGE OF PATIENTS Patients discharged home need a ‘discharge letter’ detailing the postoperat...

Deep vein thrombosis Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a well-known and, when complicated by pulmonar...

Drains Drains are used to prevent accumulation of blood and sero sanguineous or purulent fluid. I...

ENHANCED RECOVERY Enhanced recovery is an approach to the perioperative care of patients undergo...

FURTHER READING Goren O, Matot I. Perioperative acute kidney injury . Br J Anaesth 2015; 115 (Sup...

Fever About 40% of patients develop pyrexia after major surgery; however, in most cases no cause...

Follow-up in clinic Patients should be reviewed in clinic if a key decision on management needs ...

GENERAL POSTOPERATIVE COMPLICATIONS Bleeding Postoperative haemorrhage is most common in the imme...

GENERAL POSTOPERATIVE PROBLEMS AND MANAGEMENT This section provides an overview of selected impo...

INTRODUCTION Perioperative care is integrated care delivered to the patient by a multidisciplinar...

Learning objectives To understand: The integrated approach to caring for patients in the • periop...

Neck surgery Patients undergoing neck surgery , e.g. thyroid surgery , must be observed for accum...

Orthopaedic surgery Neurovascular supply to the extremity Patients who have undergone extremity s...

POSTOPERATIVE COMPLICATIONS Postoperative complications are an important cause of morbidity , mor...

POSTOPERATIVE OBSERVATIONS The patient’s vital signs (including pulse, blood pressure and pulse o...

PREHABILITATION The functional capacity of a patient can be reduced following major surgery . Th...

Plastic surgery The viability of flaps is crucial and the perfusion needs to be monitored regular...

Pressure sores Patients undergoing surgery for a prolonged period of time are vulnerable to the ...

Pulmonary embolus PE is not usually an immediate complication but can present in the early postop...

Renal and urinary system Acute kidney injury Renal failure occurring during the perioperative per...

SURGERY-SPECIFIC COMPLICATIONS This section provides an overview of selected important complicat...

SYSTEM-SPECIFIC COMPLICATIONS Respiratory system Early detection of respiratory complications is...

Thoracic surgery Careful fluid management is important in patients undergoing a lobectomy or pneum...

Urology Catheter patency must be checked regularly following urolog ical surgery . In patients wh...

Vascular surgery The patency of grafts and anastomoses, for example femoro popliteal bypasses an...

Wound care Within hours of the wound being surgically closed, the dead space fills up with an infla...

Wound dehiscence Wound dehiscence is disruption of any or all of the layers in a wound. Dehisce...