General physicians and perioperative medicine. What is on the horizon?

Surgical care has been an essential component of health care worldwide for more than a century. Surgery is the preferred or only treatment to prevent mortality, relieve pain or restore normal structure or function in many conditions, ranging from trauma and intra-abdominal emergencies to cancer and osteoarthritis. While surgical procedures are intended to improve lives, complications from surgical care can cause significant harm. Postoperative complications affect 21% to 45% of adult surgical patients by 30 days, although reported rates depend on measurement definitions and methods1-3 as well as patient and surgical characteristics, and patterns do not seem to have changed appreciably over the past decade.4 Surgical complications significantly affect a patient's quality of life2, 5 as well as mortality, length of stay and care needs.