Better surgery, better recovery: advancing perioperative medicine

Each month, ESICM’s Topic of the Month brings together curated scientific content, expert interviews, and key resources from across our 15 specialist sections, helping you explore key themes in depth and stay at the forefront of ICU practice.

Because in a field that evolves as rapidly as ours, continuous learning is the foundation of better care for our patients.

This month, discover the Anaesthesia & Peri-operative Medicine Section, led by Alexander Vlaar, dedicated to advancing research, education, and clinical practice across the entire perioperative pathway.

From preoperative risk assessment and the management of high-risk surgical patients, to intraoperative decision-making, prevention of complications, perioperative pain management, and postoperative monitoring until full recovery, the section addresses some of the most critical challenges in perioperative care.

As perioperative complications remain a major driver of morbidity in high-risk patients, the APM Section aims to bridge anaesthesiology and intensive care through collaboration, innovation, and scientific exchange to improve patient outcomes.

This month, we invite you to explore our featured scientific interview and curated resources, and to reflect on how personalised perioperative management across cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, and renal domains shapes your daily clinical decisions.

Because in perioperative medicine, improving outcomes is not only about managing risk at each stage—it is about optimising the entire patient journey from surgery to recovery.

RESOURCES: 

 Webinars & Podcasts
🔹How to manage coagulation in perioperative medicine?
🔹The safety of perioperative ventilation
🔹Hypotension management in peri-operative management

LIVE Top Talks
🔹Patient blood management postoperatively in critically ill patients
🔹How to avoid anastomotic leakage by optimizing perioperative management?
🔹Spontaneous breathing trials: which one for the postoperative ICU patient?

ICM Articles
🔹The perioperative brain: navigating neurological risks in non-neurosurgical patients
🔹ECMO for patients needing surgery
🔹How to set the ventilator during surgery? Key principles to guide intraoperative mechanical ventilation

SCIENTIFIC INTERVIEW:

In this month’s scientific interview, Denise Veelo (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) discusses the PRETREAT Trial and the evolving approach to managing intraoperative hypotension. She explains the rationale behind comparing proactive and reactive treatment strategies, summarises the study’s key findings, and explores their implications for perioperative haemodynamic management. She also shares how these results could influence future monitoring strategies, clinical practice, and research in perioperative care.