| Summary: | ABSTRACT
Background: preoperative exams aim to identify disorders that may compromise the patient´s perioperative care. However, unnecessary tests rarely change the outcome, and are expensive to institution. The aim of this study was to evaluate the preoperative tests ordered in Santa Lucinda hospital, Sorocaba - SP. Methods: after approval by the Ethics Committee of PUC-SP University, we assessed pre-anesthetic evaluation of patients undergoing elective surgery from march to August, 2011. We recorded: age, sex, ASA physical status, the presence of coexisting diseases, medication use, type of surgery and preoperative tests. They were classified as sufficient, sufficient with unnecessary tests, insufficient, or insufficient with unnecessary tests. Results: two hundred and nineteen records were evaluated, of which 52% were considered sufficient, but with unnecessary tests. For 24% of patients, the tests were insufficient, with some ordered unnecessarily. To 8% of patients, the tests were insufficient, and only 16% didn´t have insufficient and unnecessary tests. The most frequently ordered tests were hematocrit and hemoglobin. The exams most unnecessarily ordered were coagulation tests and dosage of serum urea. Among the necessary examinations, but unsolicited, there were ECG (27%), electrolytes (13%) and creatinine (11%). Seventy-nine tests showed some kind of problem, but they didn´t change in behavior. Conclusions: preoperative tests unnecessarily ordered are frequent, which do not guarantee that some patients present to surgery without fundamental exams according to their risk group.
|
|---|
