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Reducing the Footprint of Postoperative Complications
Prevention and Management of Postoperative Complications
P re f a c e R e d u c i n g th e F o o t p r i n t o f Postoperative Complications
John D. Mitchell, MD, FACS Editor
If you operate, expect things to occasionally go wrong. This is a fact surgeons should learn early in their career—that no one is exempt from patient morbidity. It is possible, though, to minimize the occurrence of complications through thoughtful preventive measures in the perioperative time frame, and to reduce the impact of complications when they do occur through early recognition and decisive patient management. Surgeons adept at these strategies are often the most successful with the best patient outcomes. This issue of Thoracic Surgery Clinics is dedicated to the prevention and management of complications that may occur following thoracic surgery. Some of the topics included, such as adverse cardiovascular events, respiratory failure, and chronic pain syndromes, are generic to any thoracic procedure. Other complications, such as prolonged air leak and anastomotic
leak, are specific to particular operations. In each article, though, the contributing authors have tried to emphasize both prevention and management strategies to minimize patient morbidity. I believe they have been successful in achieving this goal. I’d like to thank each of the contributing authors for their expertise and for their outstanding contributions to this issue. A special thanks goes to Blair Marshall, the Consulting Editor of Thoracic Surgery Clinics, for her gracious invitation to serve as guest editor and her gentle guidance after my acceptance of her offer. Finally, I’d like to express my appreciation to John Vassallo and Susan Showalter of Elsevier for their help and support throughout the preparation of this issue. John D. Mitchell, MD, FACS Section of General Thoracic Surgery Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery University of Colorado School of Medicine Academic Office 1, C-310 12631 East 17th Avenue Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Thorac Surg Clin 25 (2015) xiii http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.thorsurg.2015.08.001 1547-4127/15/$ – see front matter Ó 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc.
E-mail address: [email protected]
thoracic.theclinics.com
No matter what measures are taken, doctors will sometimes falter, and it isn’t reasonable to ask that we achieve perfection. What is reasonable is to ask that we never cease to aim for it. —Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
P re f a c e R e d u c i n g th e F o o t p r i n t o f Postoperative Complications
John D. Mitchell, MD, FACS Editor
If you operate, expect things to occasionally go wrong. This is a fact surgeons should learn early in their career—that no one is exempt from patient morbidity. It is possible, though, to minimize the occurrence of complications through thoughtful preventive measures in the perioperative time frame, and to reduce the impact of complications when they do occur through early recognition and decisive patient management. Surgeons adept at these strategies are often the most successful with the best patient outcomes. This issue of Thoracic Surgery Clinics is dedicated to the prevention and management of complications that may occur following thoracic surgery. Some of the topics included, such as adverse cardiovascular events, respiratory failure, and chronic pain syndromes, are generic to any thoracic procedure. Other complications, such as prolonged air leak and anastomotic
leak, are specific to particular operations. In each article, though, the contributing authors have tried to emphasize both prevention and management strategies to minimize patient morbidity. I believe they have been successful in achieving this goal. I’d like to thank each of the contributing authors for their expertise and for their outstanding contributions to this issue. A special thanks goes to Blair Marshall, the Consulting Editor of Thoracic Surgery Clinics, for her gracious invitation to serve as guest editor and her gentle guidance after my acceptance of her offer. Finally, I’d like to express my appreciation to John Vassallo and Susan Showalter of Elsevier for their help and support throughout the preparation of this issue. John D. Mitchell, MD, FACS Section of General Thoracic Surgery Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery University of Colorado School of Medicine Academic Office 1, C-310 12631 East 17th Avenue Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Thorac Surg Clin 25 (2015) xiii http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.thorsurg.2015.08.001 1547-4127/15/$ – see front matter Ó 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc.
E-mail address: [email protected]
thoracic.theclinics.com
No matter what measures are taken, doctors will sometimes falter, and it isn’t reasonable to ask that we achieve perfection. What is reasonable is to ask that we never cease to aim for it. —Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science