• Peter M Spieth, Andreas Güldner, and Marcelo Gama de Abreu.
• Pulmonary Engineering Group, Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Therapy, University Hospital Dresden, Dresden, Germany. peter.spieth@uniklinikum-dresden.de
• Curr Opin Anaesthesiol. 2012 Feb 1;25(1):24-9.

Purpose Of ReviewChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common cause of primary hospital admission and also a common coexisting disease among surgical patients. This translational review focused on recent studies related to the perioperative care of COPD patients.Recent FindingsIn addition to the crucial role of smoking cessation, the use of corticosteroids, antibiotics, regional anesthesia techniques and noninvasive ventilation has become a focus in the perioperative management of the COPD patient.SummaryPerioperative management as well as modern intensive care concepts are based on avoidance of tracheal intubation if possible, use of regional anesthesia techniques and the early liberation from invasive mechanical ventilation. Noninvasive ventilation has become more and more utilized in recent years to stabilize patients with acute exacerbations of COPD and to treat postoperative pulmonary complications in order to avoid reintubation.

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