Myocardial and Cerebral Infarctions as Post-operative Complications

Many of the complications following surgery, pre- viously critical, are now preventable or readily curable as a result of advances in anaesthesia, transfusion, fluid and electrolyte management, and control of infection. Particularly in the geriatric group, where advancing years no longer constitute a bar to major surgery, myocardial infarction and cerebrovascular accidents are too often the causes of post-operative death. These complications, occurring just when recovery after a technically successful operation seemed assured, are erroneously regarded as non-preventable by surgeons, and few recorded studies of surgical patients have been