Development of a comprehensive self-administered pre-operative health assessment questionnaire: a risk stratification strategy

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Preanesthetic evaluation is a basic element of anesthesia care which aims to reduce the risks associated with anesthesia and increase quality of perioperative care. As part of the preanesthetic evaluation, questionnaires allow the anesthesiologist to quickly review a structured list and focus on pertinent findings thus ensuring a more focused evaluation. The objective of this study is to develop a self-administered preoperative assessment questionnaire in Filipinos that can be used for patients scheduled to undergo anesthesia and to determine if the questionnaire can help in risk stratification of these patients. Methods: Adult patients undergoing anesthesia were asked to fill up a 24-item questionnaire written in Filipino and English that emphasized the cardiovascular, respiratory, neurologic, endocrine, gastrointestinal, hematologic, and homeostatic status of the patient. Questions were answerable by "yes", "no", or "I don't know". A "yes" was counted as two points, "no" one point, "I don't know" as 0. Scores were then added for each patient. An anesthesia resident unaware of the results of the questionnaire validated the patient's responses by doing a routine preoperative evaluation. 'Results from the two were compared. Results: Eighty-four patients were included in the study. No significant difference was noted between the results of the questionnaire and the standard preoperative form. Tweny one patients were included in the high index group because their perioperative course was marked by previously defined adverse events while the remaining 63 were in the low index group because of an unremarkable perioperative course. Mean cumulative score of patients in the high index group was significantly higher than the low index group (30.48 vs. 27.42; p<0.05, Sig). A score of 29 or higher was also found to be associated with adverse events during the perioperative period. Conclusion: This self-administered form in Filipino was comparable to the standard evaluation done by a resident and was helpful in detecting potential problem areas for patients undergoing anesthesia and surgery. (Author)