Surgical Guidelines

The Surgical Guidelines are a practical document to support you and healthcare professionals. It explains what level of extra medication and monitoring you will need in the event of most types of surgery.

We know that for steroid-dependent inpatients, strict adherence to steroid medication regime is vital to recovery and a safe inpatient experience.

If you are having elective surgery in hospital, we recommend that you give a copy to your surgeon and anaesthetist before your surgery date.

It is also best to take the guidelines with you when you go into hospital and discuss them with your nursing staff.

You can order the ADSHG’s hospital pack (containing drugs chart stickers and other medical information). The new Surgical Guidelines are included in this pack.

Dental procedures

If you are looking for further information on extra steroid cover for certain dental procedures, you can get this information from our dedicated webpage for dentists.

Supporting the Guidance

Addison’s Disease Self Help Group compiled the guidance with the support of The ADSHG Clinical Advisory Panel (CAP). In particular we would like to thank:

Chair of CAP Professor John Wass, MA, MD, FRCP. Professor of Endocrinology at Oxford University.
Dr Helen Simpson, FRCP, PhD. Consultant Endocrinologist, UCLH NHS Foundation Trust and member of the RCP Patient Safety Committee being senior clinical advisor for the Steroid Emergency Card.
Professor Simon Pearce, MD, FRCP. Professor of Endocrinology at Newcastle University and co-author of "Living with Addison's Disease – A Guide For People With Addison's, Supporters and Professionals".

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(Printer friendly version includes new accessibility improvements to support people with visual impairments)

More Questions?

Read our FAQS

We hope you’ll find the guidelines easy to use. We’d love to get your feedback on them, please give us your feedback on the guidelines using our online form. All feedback sent in using this form will be reviewed and action taken where needed.

Last Updated: November 2021.

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