Are patients with rheumatic diseases at increased risk for perioperative complications compared with other patients?
Patients with rheumatic diseases may have a higher incidence of postoperative wound infections and impaired wound healing than nonrheumatic patients, usually because of medications used to treat their disease.
Accelerated CV disease may be seen in patients with chronic inflammatory disease such as RA, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis as a result of disease activity or medications.
In addition, these groups may have higher rates of asymptomatic CV disease than nonrheumatic populations.
As such, CV risk assessment should be performed in all patients with inflammatory rheumatic disease
