Preparation for surgery, postoperative complications
1. Big picture
This topic is about the perioperative surgical pathway:
Before surgery → make the patient as safe as possible
During surgery → perform the correct operation under safe conditions
After surgery → detect complications early and treat them before organ failure
For the exam, the key idea is:
Good surgery is not only the operation. It is diagnosis, indication, consent, preparation, anesthesia planning, prophylaxis, postoperative monitoring, and early recognition of complications.
The two biggest oral-exam themes are:
- Preoperative preparation: reduce preventable risk.
- Postoperative complications: recognize early warning signs such as tachycardia, fever, hypotension, dyspnea, pain, oliguria, bleeding, sepsis, ileus, and wound problems.
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