Principles of cardiac anaesthesia

Cardiac surgical outcomes in the UK have consistently improved despite increasing procedure complexity and ‘sicker’ patients. Numerous anaesthetic techniques are employed with no definitive evidence clearly demonstrating superiority of one particular technique. Patient safety is paramount and various monitoring techniques used to enhance safety and ensure effective anaesthesia are outlined. Management of bleeding, particularly in complex cases, is a major component of cardiac anaesthesia and recent developments in this area are briefly described.