The Incidence of Abnormal Preoperative Testing Among Elective Surgery Patients in a Referral Hospital in Southern Saudi Arabia.

Background Preoperative investigations are important to assess the clinical condition of patients who undergo elective surgical procedures. However, there is still debate about the usefulness of performing preoperative investigations. We aimed to determine the prevalence of routine preoperative investigation abnormalities among elective general surgery patients. Methodology This retrospective hospital-record-based study was conducted at the King Abdullah Hospital in Bisha Province, southern Saudi Arabia. General and clinical data of 968 patients who underwent elective surgical interventions from February 2022 to January 2023 were retrieved and analyzed. Result A total of 968 patients (578 females and 390 males) aged between 14 and 80 years were included in the study. Four hundred and eleven (42.5%) patients were in the age group of 40 years and above. The commonly detected comorbidities among the patients were diabetes (15%), hypertension (12%), respiratory diseases (7.5%), and cardiac diseases (2.5%). Abnormalities related to hemoglobin (31%), total leucocyte count (12.7%), and platelets (8.5%) were found in 968 patients. Around 15% of patients had increased creatinine levels. Hypokalemia was observed in 6.8% of patients. Increased liver enzymes were reported in limited proportions (10% to 14%) of patients. Slightly abnormal radiological findings were reported for chest X-ray (CXR) (2.8%), electrocardiogram (ECG) (2%), and Doppler echocardiography (Echo) (0.8%). A statistically significant association between the age of the patient and abnormal findings of ECG (p <.001), Echo (p = .001), and CXR (p <.001). Cardiac abnormalities were commonly associated with patients of ≥ 40 years. Abnormal cardiac findings (CXR, ECG, Echo) were significantly (p<.05) increased with the presence of diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular comorbidities. Conclusions Preoperative testing revealed limited proportions of abnormal findings among patients with elective surgical procedures. Routine ordering of many preoperative investigations without specifications may not predict postoperative complications of the patients. Therefore, undertaking preoperative testing should be guided by targeted history, physical examination, clinical risk factors, and type of surgical procedure intended to be performed.