It is generally acknowledged that modern surgical care and the practitioners delivering it must evolve in response to the ever-changing needs of our increasingly complex surgical population.1 Perioperative medicine has developed both as a concept, and as a medical specialty in direct response to this need.

Presented by Dr Sanjoy Sana, Liver Transplant and Hepatobiliary anaesthesia fellow, the Royal Free Hospital at the 2017 ASiT conference.

By now many of you will be increasingly familiar with the term ‘perioperative medicine’ (POM), which encompasses a refreshed way of managing the integrated, multidisciplinary medical care of the surgical patient. The principles are not necessarily new, but the success of projects such as Enhanced Recovery After Surgery in the Europe and the Perioperative Surgical Home [1] in the USA, have triggered a renaissance in interest and excitement around how re-modelling the surgical patient journey can improve clinical effectiveness and patient outcomes.