Simple Guide to Fluid and Electrolyte Balance in Relation to Surgery

The rapid advances in surgery and anaesthetics are making more extensive surgical procedures possible and allowing more “poor risk” patients to be operated on with a reasonable chance of survival. An important advance has been the understanding of the changes in the fluid and electrolyte balance which occur after surgery and in surgical conditions. This is of great value in patients who have to be fed by the intravenous route for some days after extensive intra-abdominal procedures.

A CAJM article on surgery and anaesthetics procedures as practiced in a Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) hospital in the 1950's.