[Cardiac evaluation before non-cardiac surgery]

Before non-cardiac surgery, evaluation of cardiac function is no frequent part of surgical treatment. European societies of anesthesiology and cardiology published consensus-guidelines in 2014 to present a reasonable approach for preoperative evaluation. This paper intends to differentiate the composite of perioperative risk and to display the guidelines methodical approach to handle it. Features to identify patients at risk from an ageing population with comorbidities, are the classification of surgical risk, functional capacity and risk indices. Application of diagnostic means, should be used adjusted to this risk estimation. Cardiac biomarkers are useful to discover risk of complications or mortality, that cannot be assessed by clinical signs. After preoperative optimization and perioperative cardiac protection, the observation of the postoperative period remains, to prohibit complications or even death. In consideration of limited resources of intensive care department, postoperative ward rounds beyond intensive care units are considered to be an appropriate instrument to avoid or recognize complications early to reduce postoperative mortality.