»: Recent literature has shown that continued use rather than discontinuation of various antirheumatic agents throughout the perioperative period may present an opportunity to mitigate the risks of elective surgery.
»: For patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, perioperative management of medication weighs the risk of infection against the risk of disease flare when immunosuppressive medications are withheld.
»: Broadly speaking, current evidence, although limited in quality, supports perioperative continuation of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, whereas biologic drugs should be withheld perioperatively, based on the dosing interval of the specific drug.
»: For any withheld biologic drug, it is generally safe to restart these medications approximately 2 weeks after surgery, once the wound shows evidence of healing, all sutures and staples have been removed, and there is no clinical evidence of infection. The focus of this recommendation applies to the optimization of wound-healing, not bone-healing.
»: In most cases, the usual daily dose of glucocorticoids is administered in the perioperative period rather than administering "stress-dose steroids" on the day of surgery.
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