American Society of Anesthesiologists, Approved by House of Delegates on October 14, 1987. The preoperative evaluation should be performed by an anesthesiologist. Training is required to understand the physiological changes of surgery. What is determined to be medically optimized for daily life by may not be adequate for the stress of major surgery. With the increasing age of our population, patients are presenting for surgery with more complex medical problems.
Surgery is a major insult on the human body regardless of the anesthesia provided.
The information obtained from the patient preoperatively is used to devise a safe anesthetic plan. The anesthetic agents we plan for intra-operatively are aimed at minimizing the body's stress response to surgery, maintaining homeostasis while considering the patient's chronic medical problems, managing fluid shifts and losses, and providing postoperative pain control. The decreasing incidence of anesthetic morbidity and mortality over the past decades has coincided with the advent of new monitors such as pulse oximetry and capnography, the adoption of practice standards, and new pharmacological agents. Designates an emergency surgical procedure American Society of Anesthesiologists Newsletter. Many institutions have developed questionnaires in order to improve efficiency in preoperative clinics.