Preoperative evaluation is one of the most important steps in the perioperative process, having the goal of improving patients' safety through the anticipation of possible complications during and after surgery.

Common clinical practice is dominated by routinely ordered tests that frequently lack the power to adequately predict adverse outcomes, and moreover they burden the budget of health care systems all over the world.

Medical history and physical examination take priority over laboratory assessment, radiologic studies, and other diagnostic tools used preoperatively. However, when indicated, diagnostic tests focused on morbidity, surgery risk, and procedural characteristics can be useful during the completion of preoperative evaluation.

The Austrian Society of Anaesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine recently targeted an unmet need to establish a task force aimed at developing nationwide guidelines for Preoperative Patient Evaluation.

Members of this task force will serve as Guest Editors of this special issue and provide an overview on their special fields as well as they refer to the guidelines for Preoperative Patient Evaluation of the Austrian Society of Anaesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine (OEGARI).

In contrast to elsewhere published guidelines (e.g., NICE; ASA- practice advisory, etc.), the OEGARI paper represents a short, comprehensive, and easily applicable access to preoperative assessment and risk stratification. This is the first publication on this topic which was released in one of Europe's German speaking countries. It refers to recent research in the field of preoperative medicine and focuses on the main reasons for complications like cardiovascular diseases and bleeding disorders.

The topics to be covered include but are not limited to:

• Special aspects of medical history and physical examination
• Preoperative prediction of the difficult airway
• Preoperative evaluation of the cardiovascular system
• Preoperative exercise testing
• Preoperative assessment of the respiratory system
• Preoperative assessment of the coagulation system
• Preoperative laboratory tests
• Preoperative medication

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/arp/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: