Perioperative evaluation of pregnant surgical patients: A review

Pregnant Females require special perioperative consideration as females react differently to treatment from physiologic and behavioural standpoints. Thus a standard perioperative assessment plays a crucial role for successful accomplishment of intraoperative and postoperative phase as well as to resist complications due to pregnancy. Each physiologic system is affected in such a way that may or may not have clinical significance for the surgeons. Thus affect of Pregnancy on cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, renal and endocrinal system have been reviewed. Moreover to decrease the hazards to the developing child, impact of surgery/treatment on the fetus has also been discussed. It was concluded that the goal of the perioperative evaluation of pregnant females is to identify its physiological effects on various systems and provide for the best efficacious perioperative treatment algorithm that shall minimize the patient morbidity.