Role of Hospital Medicine in Perioperative Patients: Surgery 101

Due to their increasing role, many hospitalists will in the future encounter perioperative patients, either through surgical co-management or when an admitted patient requires surgery. If given the responsibility, hospitalists should focus not only on assessing and addressing daily acute issues related to medical comorbidities, but also possess basic knowledge of the typical physiological responses after surgery, prediction, evaluation, and management of perioperative bleeding, and identification of postoperative complications. Understanding these topics may help mitigate complications and improve the management of perioperative patients.