Describes the historical development of cardiac fast-tracking and the Overnight Intensive Recovery concept for postoperative management of cardiac surgery patients.
Historical review of fast-tracking informs context but should not change practice; leaves open need for modern prospective validation.
Dr Chris Aps has been involved, since the early 1980s, with the impact of the surgical patient on critical care provision. At that time, he established clinical techniques to lower patient dependency after cardiac surgery. This allowed for the postoperative management of such patients in a general recovery facility rather than in the formal Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This became known as cardiac fast-tracking and led to the development of the Overnight Intensive Recovery (OIR) concept.
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Chris Aps (2002) studied this question.
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