Perioperative intensive care medicine.

Area of Science:

• Critical Care Medicine
• Surgical Patient Management
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Surgery is a vital treatment globally, improving survival and life expectancy.
• While overall postoperative mortality is low (1-4%), 13% of procedures carry high complication risks, causing 80% of surgical deaths.
• Recent advancements include improved organization, anesthesia, surgical techniques, prognostic tools, perioperative care, and patient engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how Intensive Care Medicine departments can enhance the surgical process.
• To emphasize coordinated care between Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and other hospital services.
• To outline strategies for optimizing the surgical patient pathway from risk detection to post-ICU recovery.

Main Methods:

• Review of current practices and proposed strategies for integrating ICU care into the surgical pathway.
• Emphasis on institutional policies for risk identification, timely ICU admission, and tailored ICU treatment.
• Focus on optimizing discharge criteria and implementing multidisciplinary follow-up care.

Main Results:

• Implementing institutional policies can improve the detection of at-risk surgical patients.
• Early ICU admission and adapted treatment can manage high-risk patients effectively.
• Proactive detection and prevention of post-ICU syndrome, alongside multidisciplinary follow-up, can reduce sequelae.

Conclusions:

• Intensive Care Medicine departments play a pivotal role in optimizing surgical patient outcomes.
• Coordinated care, early intervention, and comprehensive follow-up are essential for critical surgical patients.
• Future publications will address perioperative management for complex surgeries.