Analysis of preoperative laboratory values prior to outpatient dental anesthesia

A retrospective study of 672 ASA Class I patients undergoing outpatient general anesthesia for oral surgical procedures was performed to evaluate the significance and incidence of abnormal preoperative serum glucose and hematocrit levels. There was an 11% overall incidence of "abnormal" values. Specifically, 6% of the patients had serum glucose levels below 60 g/dl and 5% had hematocritis less than 35 mg/dl. These values are not outside the realm of normal and had no impact on the preoperative, perioperative, or postoperative anesthetic management. The results of this study and review of the suggest that routine laboratory analysis is of little value in the anesthetic management of ASA Class I patients in which a thorough history and physical examination is obtained.