ICU · Cardiovascular / perioperative
Postoperative Complications in the ICU
Also known as Postoperative complications · Postop complications · Postoperative bleeding · Postoperative respiratory failure · Postoperative delirium · Postoperative AKI · VTE prophylaxis · ERAS · Enhanced recovery after surgery
Exam-focused guide to postoperative complications in intensive care: bleeding, pulmonary complications, infection, cardiac events, delirium, acute kidney injury, fluids, analgesia, venous thromboembolism and enhanced recovery pathways.
Checked against its sources on 23 Oct 2026
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Meet the patient
A 68-year-old man, Day 2 after an emergency laparotomy for a perforated diverticulum. Tachycardic at 118, afebrile, BP holding. Drain output is modest, but the lactate has crept to 2.6 and the urine output has tailed off. He sits on a morphine PCA, an epidural running, and a litre of Hartmann's an hour. He has not yet got out of bed.[1]
The ward-round question that decides his night: is this pain, an anastomotic leak, MINS, or fluid overload? Each one needs a different phone call. This topic is how you tell them apart before 3am.[1]
References34ShowHide
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