Nursing NUR401 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Elective Surgery, Bronchitis, Local Anesthesia
Document Summary
The preoperative period is associated with significant cardiovascular stress. Patients with heart disease should be considered high-risk surgical candidates and must be fully evaluated. Patients with symptoms of previously undiagnosed heart disease (e. g. chest pain, dyspnea, pretibial edema or orthopnea) Such patients should be evaluated with the assistance of medical or cardiology consultation. The perioperative monitoring, induction, and maintenance techniques of anesthesia, and post operative care can be tailored to the specific cardiovascular diseases. The following respiratory tract problems make patients high risk for surgery; Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases: chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthma. Elective surgery should be postponed if acute upper or lower respiratory tract infection is present. Pulmonary infections also predispose to postoperative bronchitis and pneumonia. If emergency surgery is necessary in the presence of respiratory tract infection, regional anesthesia should be used if possible and aggressive measures should be taken to avoid postoperative atelectasis or pneumonia.
