Lay summary
As the burden of surgery rises in Aotearoa NZ, so too will the incidence of postoperative morbidity and mortality. Despite its necessity, the act of surgery is associated with a profound immune response which can influence an individual’s postoperative recovery. Here, we provide a framework for investigating the immune response to surgery as a functional biomarker for early detection of surgical patients at-risk of adverse postoperative recovery. This study will employ cutting-edge full-spectrum flow cytometry to interrogate the trajectory of the immune response to surgery in two distinct major surgeries (orthopaedic surgery and vascular surgery) and will utilize patient-centred tools for assessing postoperative recovery. Here, we present a streamlined workflow for immunological biomarker discovery for postoperative recovery, which may provide additive information for clinical decision-making in this context.