Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Christopher Snowden, Dr Helen Anderson
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
Purpose of review The development of preoperative clinics and the increasing importance of the anaesthetist in the management of surgical risk have expanded the concept of preoperative optimization. This review will focus on the rationale and process for cost-effective preoperative optimization. Recent findings Postoperative morbidity, rather than mortality, is the most important surgical outcome in economic terms. Since preoperative comorbidity, in association with surgical complexity, is more predictive of hospital costs than the subsequent treatment of postoperative complications per se, preoperative optimization represents an appropriate economic target. Process management, including guidelines to reduce unnecessary investigations and specialist referrals and enhancing perioperative recovery, makes economical sense in the majority of patients who undergo noncardiac surgery with few complications. Preoperative optimization of a minority of high-risk surgical patients is also important given limited critical care resource. However, the evidence for specific optimization strategies in this latter group continues to evolve and requires further clarification in well designed trials. Summary The requirement for appropriate methods of risk stratification of surgical patients targeted at the reduction of postoperative morbidity, underpins the development of cost-effective preoperative optimization. Specific process-based and clinical measures may then be applied to the development of individualized perioperative care packages.
Author(s): Snowden CP, Anderson H
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Current Opinion in Anesthesiology
Year: 2012
Volume: 25
Issue: 2
Pages: 210-216
Print publication date: 01/04/2012
ISSN (print): 0952-7907
ISSN (electronic): 1473-6500
Publisher: LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACO.0b013e32834ef903
DOI: 10.1097/ACO.0b013e32834ef903
