Most actionable preoperative advice comes from the medicines. Anticoagulants and antiplatelets, SGLT2 inhibitors, insulin and other glucose-lowering drugs, and immunosuppressants each need a specific plan for before and after surgery.
Write that plan explicitly, with dates where possible, and say who restarts what. Ambiguity at handover is where omissions happen.
- List every medicine with a clear instruction: continue, hold from a date, or adjust dose.
- Plan anticoagulant and antiplatelet interruption with the surgeon, according to bleeding and thrombotic risk.
- Specify who restarts each held medicine after surgery, and when.
- Include over-the-counter and traditional remedies in the review.
Why it matters
Most preventable perioperative harm from medicines happens at the handover, not in theatre.
Read the rest in the app
You have read your two free briefings this month. The app carries all 27 specialties, every morning, free — and this finding is waiting in it.
Scan to keep reading on your phone. No account needed to start.
Tomorrow morning, before your first patient
One edition a day for internal medicine, written by the desk, every claim tied to its paper. Six minutes.
Get the app — free