BACKGROUND: Preoperative medical testing in the United States is estimated at $3,000,000 USD per year. In an attempt to reduce this cost, some key points have been described with the purpose of promoting appropriate preoperative measurements with an adequate costObjective: To evaluate the utility of a preoperative standardized questionnaire in adult patients prior to elective surgery to detect which patients could be operated without laboratory testing. METHOD: An observational, prospective and analytic study was carried out. The questionnaire has been applied to 176 patients, all adults scheduled for elective surgery from April 2011 to March 2012. RESULTS: There were 57.4% females and 42.6% males. Ages varied between 18 and 85 years old, with a median of 46 years; 40.3% of the patients were > 50 years old and 59.7% were < 50 years old. The negative predictive value of the questionnaire is 95.88% (CI 95.34-96.42%). CONCLUSION: This questionnaire is a useful instrument to determinate the necessity of preoperative laboratory testing in young, clinical healthy and elective surgery patients in a general hospital.
BACKGROUND: Preoperative medical testing in the United States is estimated at $3,000,000 USD per year. In an attempt to reduce this cost, some key points have been described with the purpose of promoting appropriate preoperative measurements with an adequate costObjective: To evaluate the utility of a preoperative standardized questionnaire in adult patients prior to elective surgery to detect which patients could be operated without laboratory testing. METHOD: An observational, prospective and analytic study was carried out. The questionnaire has been applied to 176 patients, all adults scheduled for elective surgery from April 2011 to March 2012. RESULTS: There were 57.4% females and 42.6% males. Ages varied between 18 and 85 years old, with a median of 46 years; 40.3% of the patients were > 50 years old and 59.7% were < 50 years old. The negative predictive value of the questionnaire is 95.88% (CI 95.34-96.42%). CONCLUSION: This questionnaire is a useful instrument to determinate the necessity of preoperative laboratory testing in young, clinical healthy and elective surgery patients in a general hospital.