Managing complexity in pre-operative information management systems

Preoperative assessment is composed of a set of clinical investigations that precede anaesthesia and surgery. Due to the vast scope of pre-operative assessment, the clinical domain knowledge potentially relevant for assessment is virtually limitless. For this reason, a generic preoperative assessment has traditionally focused on identifying common allergies, cardiovascular and respiratory risks and pre-empting potential airway complications, such as difficult intubation during anaesthesia. Complex surgical procedures may require additional precautions or even have separate specific pre-operative protocols. This article contributes to a review of the layers of knowledge management complexity within preoperative assessment processes which - although often approached from a clinical perspective have seldom been addressed specifically from an information elucidation and knowledge management perspective.