It is a pleasure to introduce the 5 Minute Anesthesia Consult to readers around the globe. This concise compendium of topics pertinent to modern anesthesiology practice will be useful as a rapid reference for busy anesthesiology clinical practitioners, anesthesiology residents, medical students and others in training, nurse anesthetists, anesthesiology assistants, perioperative nurses, post-operative intensive care personnel, and other allied health professionals caring for patients before and after anesthetic administration. The contents are offered in both text format as well as applications for smart devices, to be readily at hand in any clinical situation in any clinical location.

The editor has drawn from a wide spectrum of expert authors from multiple institutions to compile approximately 480 two-page chapters, in template formats for easy-to-retrieve information. The content is organized into sections on important topics in physiology, pertinent issues for major co-existing diseases/co-existing conditions, key information for important surgical procedures, and guidance for managing a variety of complications encountered in anesthetic practice. In addition, the 5 Minute Anesthesia Consult contains a drug section in a condensed, easily accessible format with current information about anesthetic drugs and adjuvants, chronic medications that patients may be taking in the perioperative period, and medications used to treat complications encountered in the peri-anesthetic period.

As anesthesiology care is extending to encompass the spectrum from early evaluation and optimization/management of pre-procedural risk factors, through post-procedural care to minimize subsequent complications and/or re-admission, every practitioner can benefit from timely access to a "one-stop" content source to support evidence-based anesthesiology care, a source that concisely presents the most important concepts on a topic in an accessible manner.

I look forward with enthusiasm to the broad distribution and availability of the 5 Minute Anesthesia Consult to support high quality patient outcomes on an international basis.

Patricia A. Kapur, MD

Professor and Chairwoman

Department of Anesthesiology

David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Los Angeles, California, USA

April 2012