Preoperative laboratory testing: general issues and considerations

The challenge of preoperative laboratory testing has been increased during the past 20 years because now fewer than 30% of patients undergoing surgery are admitted to the hospital before the day of surgery. Even with the advent of formal preoperative systems in many institutions, it is believed that well over 50% of patients do not have a definitive preoperative visit with anesthesia staff before the day of surgery. Thus, anesthesia teams are dependent on other providers to provide appropriate data to best judge who is an appropriate candidate for anesthesia. This issue is becoming all the more difficult because the acuity of patients and complexity of procedures being managed on an outpatient or same day admission basis increases.