RT Book, Section A1 Chung, Mabel A1 Carlese, Anthony A2 Oropello, John M. A2 Pastores, Stephen M. A2 Kvetan, Vladimir SR Print(0) ID 1136416828 T1 Postcardiothoracic Surgery Care T2 Critical Care YR 1 FD 1 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071820813 LK accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1136416828 RD 2024/03/18 AB KEY POINTSEvery postcardiac patient should be evaluated for fast tracking, and the decision to proceed with this strategy should be assessed on a case-by-case basis and may be modified by patient comorbidities or situational factors.Subsequent administration of sedatives and analgesics should be done judiciously to keep the patient comfortable while intubated, but to avoid oversedation and respiratory depression that may delay extubation.To conceptualize the hemodynamic changes in the postoperative period is to consider whether the myocardium is pressure overloaded of volume overloaded or particularly with the various valvular surgeries.Viscoelastic whole blood tests such as the thromboelastography (TEG) may pinpoint the hemostatic defect and provide more targeted transfusion therapy.Atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery is a common phenomenon occurring in 10% to 65% of postoperative patients with a peak incidence occurring 2 to 3 days after surgery.Renal dysfunction is not uncommon after surgery with an incidence of 1.4% for overt renal failure, risk factors being age, New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 3 or 4 heart failure, chronic renal disease, type I diabetes mellitus (DM), prolonged operative time, and poor cardiac performance.