Guidelines on the perioperative management of chronic medication in surgical patients.

Introduction: In the perioperative setting, appropriate management of chronic medications is of great importance in determining which medications to discontinue and when to reintroduce them. Although individual decisions based on patient and surgical risk are required, the need for national consensus has been identified.

Objective: To provide a set of specific recommendations for the perioperative management of chronic medication, based on recent scientific evidence and expert consensus, with the aim of improving the safety of surgical patient care.

Method: A review of the available literature was conducted on perioperative recommendations for the drugs most commonly included in the chronic medication regimens of patients undergoing surgery. The review encompassed drug datasheets, literature from Medline and the Cochrane Library, as well as information from other databases such as UpToDate® and Micromedex®.

Results: Recommendations are summarized for various medications grouped by pharmacotherapeutic group, specific medications for the treatment of immune-mediated diseases, and finally natural supplements and herbal therapy.

Conclusions: The information collected in this article can help the healthcare team to determine the approach to the patient's chronic medication.