Book Description

Patients undergoing surgery often develop postoperative systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in response to trauma, ischaemia, inflammation and/ or infection. When due to infection, SIRS may be self limiting or may progress to severe sepsis. Early detection of post-operative infection can be difficult as many signs and symptoms of inflammation may actually mimic an infectious process. Numerous laboratory values have been used in detection and monitoring of infectious sequelae of surgery. The early diagnosis of bacterial infections, however, still remains a formidable challenge. A delay in diagnosis of infections in post-operative phase can lead to sepsis which is associated with high morbidity and mortality. The clinical signs of the patient may sometimes be insufficient to give precise assessment of inflammatory response to surgical trauma. A variety of techniques to measure the inflammatory markers have been utilised to detect patients in borderline condition and at a risk of slipping into post-operative infectious complications.