This book addresses those aspects of anaesthetic
practice in perioperative medicine which have a significant impact on both the
immediate and the long-term outcome for the surgical patient. Perioperative
Medicine is the natural evolution of anaesthesia from a main focus on the
patient in the operating room to a responsibility for the care of the patient
from the time that the decision to operate is made, through to discharge from
hospital. The contributors, well-respected authors in their field, discuss the
role of the perioperative medicine specialist in areas ranging from
pre-operative assessment and physiological optimization via pre-habilitation,
to intra-operative anaesthetic management, and post-operative care.
Controversial topics discussed include fluid therapy, anaesthesia and cancer
outcomes, pharmacological management of cardiac risk, and the evolution of
acute to chronic pain. Developments in regional anaesthesia, quality of
recovery scoring, and lung ultrasound, are described.

It is hoped that the chapters contained in this book
will help to define the nascent specialty that is Perioperative Medicine, and
encourage further debate, research, and expansion of this vital new frontier in
anaesthetic care.