ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the health issues related to connective tissues. It also explains the preoperative assessment, perioperative management and causes for the same. These issues include bullous and vesicular skin disorders, disorders of epidermal cell kinetics and differentiation, ehlers-danlos syndrome, epidermolysis bullosa, glycogen storage disease, inflammatory myopathies, mucopolysaccharidoses, polyarteritis nodosa, pseudoxanthoma elasticum, scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus and urticaria and angio-oedema. Psoriasis is a chronic skin disorder, characterised by an accelerated epidermal turnover and epidermal hyperplasia. These are caused by increased rate of epidermal protein synthesis, rapid epidermal cell growth, shortened epidermal cell cycle and an increase in the proliferative cell population. Ehlers-Danlos syndrome consists of a group of hereditary disorders of connective tissue characterised by hypermobile and unstable joints, extensible and weakened skin, and fragile internal organs and vascular endothelium. Epidermolysis bullosa encompasses a group of rare hereditary diseases characterised by blistering of skin, either spontaneously or following minimal mechanical trauma.
