PREFACE

The goals of this sixth edition remain unchanged from those of the first—that is, to provide an easily accessible source of clinically relevant information about a wide variety of common and not-so-common surgical and nonsurgical procedures requiring anesthesia. As with the first edition, this edition does not pretend to be either a textbook of anesthesia or a textbook of surgery. Indeed, in the formulation of any anesthetic plan, there is no substitute for experience and sound clinical judgment.

Those familiar with the preceding editions will notice that the format and organization of this edition remain largely unchanged. Along with the addition of new procedures, every existing procedure was carefully reviewed and revised to reflect current practice. We continue to expand the use of color to improve readability of the tables and clarity of the figures. New to this edition is an emphasis on common sense enhanced recovery considerations that we believe can be applied perioperatively to most patients undergoing most surgical procedures. Also new to this edition is a chapter reviewing the basic principles and anatomy of common regional anesthetic techniques, an appendix reviewing individual components of enhanced recovery (ERAS) protocols, including fluid management and multimodal pain management, an appendix describing the intraoperative use of Transnasal Humidified Rapid-Insufflation Ventilatory Exchange (THRIVE), and a collection of interesting facts and figures printed on the inside cover pages.

Once again, we have made extensive use of abbreviations, medical symbols, and telegraphic sentence structure to present a large body of information in a condensed format. Although it may be aesthetically more pleasing to read: "hypoxia or hypercapnia can lead to the development of tachycardia and hypertension," it takes up a lot less space to write: ↓PaO2 or ↑PaCO2 → ↑HR + ↑BP.