A Statistical Analysis of the Patients in Anesthesia Preoperative Evaluation Clinic

Rho, Ji Yoon; Lim, Young Jin; Ahn, Won Sik; Lee, Kook Hyun; Ham, Byung Moon

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Inadequate preoperative evaluation leads to delay or cancellation of elective surgery. To minimize this problem, we launched an anesthesia preoperative evaluation clinic. We analyzed major causes of referral, requested departments and distribution of age to make guidelines of management and laboratory tests.
METHODS
The data was collected based on 6,902 patients referred to the anesthesia preoperative evaluation clinic from August 1997 to February 2002. The number of patients each year, distribution of sex, age, requested departments and clinical causes of referral were analyzed retrospectively.
RESULTS
The sex ratio (M/F) was 42:58. Twenty-three percent of the patients were in their 7th decade. Obstetrics and gynecology (24.3%), general surgery (20.7%), and orthopedic surgery (15.4%) were the main requested departments. Major causes of referral were cardiovascular problems (27.5%) and pulmonary problems (21.0%). Irrespective of age and department, the most common consultations were related to cardiovascular or pulmonary problems. Nineteen percent of patients had more than two problems that included diabetes mellitus and hypertension.
CONCLUSIONS
We concluded that increases in the number of referral patients and making guidelines related to cardiovascular and pulmonary problems will contribute to reduce delay or cancellation of elective surgery.