BACKGROUND Anaesthesiologists are not infrequently facing the problematic patient presenting in the pre-anaesthetic clinic with evident dyspnoea, which has not been properly evaluated. Dyspnoea being a presentation of several severe disorders, its evaluation and management remains important even today to modify the risks entailed and to diminish the perioperative complications along with post-operative ventilation. In this perspective, we searched for relevant medical literature in English

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... age using Google Search Engine. A thorough search for articles was done using the following Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms such as 'Dyspnoea,' 'Dyspnoea/ aetiology,' 'Dyspnoea/ physiopathology,' 'Dyspnoea/ diagnosis,' 'Dyspnoea/ therapy,' 'Dyspnoea/ psychology,' 'Exercise/ physiology,' 'Respiratory Insufficiency' and 'Sensation.' The full text articles published in last two decades were mainly considered with the exception for some old seminal articles, which dates back to the 50's. Subsequently, the articles are filtered and only the review articles, original investigations, guidelines and editorials were consulted. Framing of this article was envisaged to provide an overview of the varying aetiology of dyspnoea, its work-up and management in the light of recent advances. This may help in the refreshment of knowledge, which can help reducing the perioperative mortality and morbidity of these patients, already living a restricted life-style with a considerable morbidity.