Although the experience of a surgical and anaesthesiological procedure is unique to every patient, many preoperative events and routines will to a certain extent be shared by a majority of patients. This review will be limited to this area of routine preoperative care and evaluation, as applied to and by the anaesthesia team before elective surgery. The word “routine” is used more in the sense of what is most commonly done; the notion of a mechanically performed act is totally inappropriate and dangerous in this cont