General Principles of Perioperative Medicine: Surgical and Medical Perspectives

Involvement of the gastrointestinal tract by primary and metastatic neoplasms can result in a variety of clinical presentations (16). Emergencies such as bowel obstruction, perforation, ischemia, and gastrointestinal bleeding are among the most challenging in medicine. Hepatic and pancreatic dysfunction can result in significant morbidity and mortality (17). Consequences of toxicity with radiotherapy and chemotherapy such as nausea, vomiting, xerostomia, mucositis, diarrhea, bleeding, and hepatotoxicity can be refractory to standard therapy and require complex management.