Perioperative Management of Cardiac Surgical Emergency

Abstract

Cardiac surgical emergencies are a part and parcel of cardiothoracic work and encompass a myriad of conditions. In this chapter, we will focus on three common emergencies: ascending aortic dissection repair, emergency coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and mediastinal re-exploration for bleeding. This list is by no means exhaustive and other conditions such as cardiac tamponade and mechanical complications of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) will be covered in subsequent chapters. Discussion has been divided into pre-, intra- and post-operative management and recommendations from various societies have been included where available.