RT Book, Section A1 Wasnick, John D. A1 Nicoara, Alina SR Print(0) ID 1166981341 T1 The Postoperative Care of the Cardiac Surgery Patient T2 Cardiac Anesthesia and Transesophageal Echocardiography, 2e YR 2019 FD 2019 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071847339 LK accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1166981341 RD 2024/11/05 AB Upon completion of surgery, the cardiac patient is transported to the intensive care unit (ICU) for postoperative management. The role of the anesthesiologist or the anesthesiology department in postoperative care depends on institutional policies and procedures. Anesthesiologists trained in intensive care, non-anesthesiologist intensivists, and nurse practitioners in consultation with the patient’s attending cardiac surgeon might manage the ICU care. In other settings, the patient’s anesthesiologist will manage some elements of postoperative care (e.g., ventilation) while the surgeon attends to others (e.g., chest tube management). What must be emphasized for the practitioner new to cardiac anesthesiology is the need to be aware of the operating paradigm used in one’s individual institution. Moreover, it is critically important that anesthesiologists carefully document their report and the time of transfer of care to the ICU team. Unfortunately, some patients survive the intraoperative period only to succumb minutes, hours, or days following arrival in the ICU.This chapter reviews common problems encountered in the postoperative care of the cardiac surgery patient. It is by no means a comprehensive text on critical care but rather highlights some of the particular problems that appear in routine postoperative cardiac surgery recovery and ICU.