RT Book, Section
A1 Wasnick, John D.
A1 Hillel, Zak
A1 Kramer, David
A1 Littwin, Sanford
A1 Nicoara, Alina
SR Print(0)
ID 8551382
T1 Chapter 14. The Postoperative Care of the Cardiac Surgery Patient
T2 Cardiac Anesthesia and Transesophageal Echocardiography
YR 2011
FD 2011
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-171798-4
LK accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=8551382
RD 2024/04/17
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  or  surgical  physician  assistants,  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  (eg,  ventilation)  while  the  surgeon  attends  to  issues  regarding  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  the  anesthesiologist  carefully  documents  their  report  and  the  time  of  transfer  of  care  to  the  ICU  team.  Unfortunately,  sometimes  patients  survive  the  intraoperative  period  only  to  succumb  minutes,  hours,  or  days  following  arrival  in  the  intensive  care  unit.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.