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Anaesthetic Considerations

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Palliative Surgery

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Abstract

The provision of high-quality surgical palliative care requires a coordinated team approach, and in this context anaesthetists are valuable members of the perioperative palliative care team. In particular, the relief of suffering and distressing symptoms has been a core component of anaesthesia practice since its inception. Anaesthetists possess valuable skills important to the provision of perioperative care for patients undergoing palliative surgery. These include the ability to provide effective analgesia; to relieve symptoms of nausea, anxiety, and dyspnoea; and to stabilize perioperative physiological derangements in this vulnerable patient population. This chapter will review the core principles underlying effective perioperative management for patients undergoing palliative surgical procedures, with a focus on perioperative pathophysiological considerations, effective intraoperative management and perioperative symptom control.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, 8006, VIC, Australia

    Marissa Ferguson MBBS(hons), BmedSc & Jonathan G. Hiller MBBS, FANZCA

  2. Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Peter MacCallum Cancer Center and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 8006, VIC, Australia

    Bernhard Riedel MBChB, FANZCA, MBA, PhD

Authors
  1. Marissa Ferguson MBBS(hons), BmedSc
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  2. Jonathan G. Hiller MBBS, FANZCA
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  3. Bernhard Riedel MBChB, FANZCA, MBA, PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bernhard Riedel MBChB, FANZCA, MBA, PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, Mount Gambier General Hospital, Flinders University—Rural Medical School, Mount Gambier, South Australia, Australia

    Matthias W. Wichmann

  2. Discipline of Surgery, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University of Adelaide, Woodville, South Australia, Australia

    Guy Maddern

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Ferguson, M., Hiller, J.G., Riedel, B. (2014). Anaesthetic Considerations. In: Wichmann, M., Maddern, G. (eds) Palliative Surgery. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-53709-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-53709-7_4

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