title: The postoperative anaesthetic review.
abstract: An anaesthetic preoperative assessment for all patients is the standard of care in UK hospitals. The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) 2009 guidelines state that a postoperative visit, within 24 hours following surgery, is recommended for patients only in certain circumstances. This article critiques these guidelines and explores factors which must be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not anaesthetists should routinely visit their patients after they leave the recovery area. We discuss the physiological rationale for performing a postoperative anaesthetic visit; the identification of post-operative morbidity including provision of adequate post-operative analgesia; patient benefits; limitations of performing postoperative review, and the implications that expanding anaesthetists' responsibilities as perioperative physicians has had upon anaesthetic training and service provision. Finally, this article offers an alternative model for deciding when to perform a post-anaesthetic visit.
authors.affiliation: University College London Hospital, 230 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BU. p.sultan@doctors.org.uk
authors.forename: Pervez
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sultan
authors.forename: Suyogi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jigajinni
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McGlennan
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Butwick
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia; D006801:Humans; D011184:Postoperative Period