Brian F. Mandell
Editor

2013

Perioperative care of the patient with a multisystem in fl ammatory (rheumatic) disease has become increasingly complex. Patients are often receiving multiple medications, are at least intermittently profoundly immunosuppressed, and may have signi fi cant organ dysfunction. At the same time, perioperative medicine has evolved almost into its own subspecialty. Physicians who have expertise in managing patients with rheumatic disease infrequently spend signifi cant amount of their time also managing patients undergoing surgical procedures, and the reverse is equally true.