title: Preoperative laboratory testing: should any tests be "routine" before surgery?
abstract: Routine preoperative testing of all patients before elective surgery is unjustified. The frequency of unanticipated abnormalities or abnormalities shown to change patient management is too low to justify a practice pattern of testing all patients. Furthermore, little evidence exists that test result abnormalities are associated with perioperative morbidity. Table 12 lists a compilation of the findings from this article and recommendations regarding routine testing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Macpherson
mesh_terms: D001772:Blood Cell Count; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine; D006801:Humans; D011300:Preoperative Care; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D012016:Reference Values