Undergraduate medical education is continuously changing to meet the requirements for the training of future medical practitioners. Over the last few years the concept of perioperative medicine has evolved, encompassing the preoperative assessment and optimisation of patients, the intraoperative and postoperative management of these patients and importantly the diagnosis and treatment of the critically ill patient. The relevance of this to undergraduate medical students is obvious. Core Topics in Perioperative Medicine provides concise, informative chapters on many aspects of perioperative medicine, allowing medical students to bridge the gap between final year clinical attachments in this specialty, and first year house officer jobs. It aims to guide the reader through the perioperative period via short, up-to-date chapters, each giving a comprehensive account of the subject and its relevance to perioperative medicine.