The Society for Endocrinology, the Association of Anaesthetists and the Royal College of Physicians have published new Guidelines for the management of glucocorticoids during the peri-operative period for patients with adrenal insufficiency.

You can access the guidelines from the Anaesthesia journal website.

The guidelines provide eight recommendations and aim to ensure that patients with adrenal insufficiency are identified and adequately supplemented with glucocorticoids during the peri-operative period.  Anaesthetists must be familiar with the symptoms and signs of acute adrenal insufficiency so that inadequate supplementation or undiagnosed adrenal insufficiency can be detected and treated promptly, as delays may prove fatal.