Rapid Evidence Synthesis: Protein-Depletion–Driven Postoperative Edema, Glycocalyx Dysfunction, and Diuretic Refractoriness

Rapid postoperative albumin decline, interstitial fluid accumulation, and diuretic refractoriness often co-occur in high-permeability states. Despite this, perioperative management paradigms frequently conceptualize postoperative edema as a simple fluid-excess problem rather than a protein-loss problem driven by increased capillary escape of albumin and glycocalyx degradation. Rapid Evidence Synthesis is an established methodology for supporting time-sensitive health-care decisions by summarizing heterogeneous evidence without the delays inherent to full systematic reviews. This working paper applies that method to the emerging clinical phenotype of postoperative protein-depletion edema.