[The patient with cardiac disease].

Cardiac patients lack compensatory capacity during bleeding, pain, and infection with an increased risk of perioperative cardiac complications. The mortality following serious postoperative cardiac events is 1400 patients per year in Denmark. Six months' mortality increases six fold after perioperative myocardial infarction. Information about the patient's heart disease should be available and treatment optimated before surgery and anaesthesia. Evidence-based preoperative risk assessment and perioperative patient care for patients with heart disease and hypertension are summarised.