INTENSIVE-CARE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH O PERATIONS IN THE VASCULAR PATIENT

Patients undergoing vascular surgery present a major challenge for the medical and surgery teams because patients admitted for vascular surg ery frequently have other associated disorders. Vital functions must b e optimized preoperatively in this population. Several problems may ar ise in the preoperative and postoperative periods. The risk of hypothe rmia or cardiovascular instability and early treatment of postoperativ e complications require careful management. Several diagnostic and the rapeutic tools are available but their routine use has not always been validated by clinical trials in the pathophysiological setting of vas cular disease. We present several examples of discordance between the pathophysiological models and results of clinical studies and raise th e question of therapeutic objectives.