Preoperative Laboratory Evaluation of Patients Aged over 40 Years Undergoing Elective Non-cardiac Surgery

Overview

Journal Sao Paulo Med J

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2005 Jun 11

PMID 15947829

Citations 1

Authors

Fabio Yoshito Ajimura

Alex Silva Santos Freire Maia

Adriana Hachiya

Alexandra Sayuri Watanabe

Maria do Patrocinio Tenorio Nunes

Milton de Arruda Martins

Fabio Santana Machado

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Context And Objective: Although it is generally agreed that a medical history and physical examination should be obtained as part of preoperative evaluation, there is still substantial controversy about the additional benefits of preoperative screening tests. The objective of the present study was to determine the percentage of abnormalities on laboratory tests among a population that underwent non-cardiac surgery and to correlate these tests with changes in preoperative evaluation management.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional study, carried out in a University Hospital.

Methods: 991 patients aged over 40 years undergoing elective non-cardiac surgery from July 1997 to January 2000 were studied. Blood cell count, serum sodium, potassium, urea and creatinine, prothrombin, thrombin and partial thromboplastin time, electrocardiogram and chest X-ray were evaluated.

Results: Out of the 957 electrocardiograms performed, some type of abnormality was found in 504 cases (50.9%) and, among the 646 chest X-rays requested, 271 (42.0%) displayed alterations. Laboratory tests showed abnormal values ranging from 5.1% (prothrombin time) to 41.0% (hematocrit). Increased percentages of abnormal tests with increasing patient age were also observed.

Conclusions: Although there were substantial numbers of screening test abnormalities in preoperative evaluations, these results seldom interfered in patient management.

Citing Articles

Impact of preoperative laboratory investigation and blood cross-match on clinical management of pediatric neurosurgical patients.

Yang M, Singhal A, Au N, Hengel A Childs Nerv Syst. 2015; 31(4):533-9.

PMID: 25694024 DOI: 10.1007/s00381-015-2617-6.

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