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Perioperative Medicine: Defining the Anesthesiologist’s Role in Shaping Perioperative Outcomes

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Abstract

The practice of anesthesia has long been regarded as an assistive service for surgery rather than one that, by itself, represents an entity of medical interventions with significant outcome consequences. Only relatively recently, researchers have supplied convincing evidence that anesthesia-related factors impact on outcomes beyond intraoperative care parameters and postoperative pain measures. Specifically, the choice of anesthetic technique may influence major morbidity and mortality, recovery time, length of hospital stay, functional outcomes, long-term quality of life, and economic aspects of care. However, with research in the field evolving, the magnitude of these effects is poorly defined and thus considerable controversy persists. This chapter seeks to introduce the reader to the current literature and to highlight areas where anesthesia related factors have been suggested to significantly impact perioperative outcomes. The presentation focuses largely on the orthopedic patient population, a group that has been most extensively studied. A view of how anesthetic practice may impact on the wider public health system evolves from this presentation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria

    Ottokar Stundner MD

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA

    Stavros G. Memtsoudis MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Ottokar Stundner MD
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  2. Stavros G. Memtsoudis MD, PhD
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Correspondence to Stavros G. Memtsoudis MD, PhD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Waimairi Anaesthesia Ltd, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Karen Stuart-Smith

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Stundner, O., Memtsoudis, S.G. (2016). Perioperative Medicine: Defining the Anesthesiologist’s Role in Shaping Perioperative Outcomes. In: Stuart-Smith, K. (eds) Perioperative Medicine – Current Controversies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28821-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28821-5_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28819-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28821-5

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