The characteristics of preoperative blood tests and their costs at Dr George Mukhari Hospital

Abstract

In surgical practice, preoperative testing involves a certain number of routine tests, among them chest X-rays, electrocardiography, urine analysis and blood tests. This study sought to characterize routine preoperative blood tests performed at DGMH.

This was a descriptive cross-sectional prospective study of preoperative blood tests conducted at the Medical Laboratory of DGMH. Patient files and their laboratory reports of tests performed during a 2-month period were examined for the extraction and collation of data.

Of the 246 patients’ records included in the analysis, there were 130 male and 116 female patients but the distribution differed based on the age, since in female patients, the majority of them were older than 40 years.

The main findings were that the most commonly done tests at DGMH are hemoglobin, FBC electrolytes, creatinine, glucose and partial prothrombin test. The average number of tests per patient was 3 and their cost on average was R224 per patient. The results of these tests impacted on the management of patients in that 11.4% of elective surgeries were postponed. The tests that were associated with postponement were low values of HB.

In conclusion, hemoglobin was the common laboratory test and the only one that had significant impact as it led to the postponement of planned surgical procedures. This test may be recommended for routine testing before surgical operations.