Perioperative Organ Protection

The evolution of cardiothoracic surgery over the last 50 years has allowed increasingly elderly and debilitated patients to benefit from cardiothoracic surgical procedures, with the improved quality and often quantity of life that they provide. The new challenge for the cardiothoracic anesthesiologist is to identify risk of organ dysfunction and provide optimal therapy to prevent it. This latest addition to the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists Monograph series is focused on perioperative organ protection, outlining the importance of the individual organ system dysfunction, predicting an individual's risk of dysfunction, and recommending strategies or therapies to reduce organ injury and improve long-term outcome.