Preoperative assessment

Peri-operative anaemia, blood loss and allogeneic blood transfusion are associated with increased postoperative morbidity and mortality, and prolonged hospital stay. A multidisciplinary, multimodal, individualised strategy, collectively termed 'patient blood management', may reduce or eliminate allogeneic blood transfusion and improve outcomes. This approach has three objectives: the detection and treatment of peri-operative anaemia; the reduction of peri-operative bleeding and coagulopathy; and harnessing and optimising the physiological tolerance of anaemia...

BACKGROUND: The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification is a measurement of comorbidity and a predictor of perioperative morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVE: To assess the predictive ability of the ASA class for periendoscopic adverse events. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort analysis. SETTING: A total of 74 sites in the United States comprising academic, community/health maintenance organization, and Veterans Affairs/military practices affiliated with the Clinical Outcomes Research Initiative (CORI) database...