As mortality is now low for many cardiac surgical procedures, there has been an increasing focus on patient centered outcomes such as recovery and quality of life. The Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) cardiac society recently published the first set of guidelines for cardiac surgery which will be useful as a starting point to help translate this philosophy for the benefit of those undergoing cardiac surgery. At the same time there are many advances in other areas such as mechanical circulation, diagnostics and quality metrics. We intend here to present a balanced and evidenced based review of selected aspects of current practice, encompassing both UK and international perioperative care with a focus on recent advances. For the convenience of the reader we will adopt the conventional perioperative preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative phases of care. The focus of cardiac surgical practice needs to evolve from mortality to recovery. Those specialists who work in cardiac anaesthesia and critical care are well placed to contribute to these changes. Accompanying this work is the development of technologies to improve recognition of and intervention to prevent early organ dysfunction. Measuring, benchmarking and publishing quality outcomes from cardiac surgical centres is likely to improve services and benefit our patients.