Experience of Management in "Preadmission Anesthesia Consultation Clinic" / 대한마취과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Some of elective surgical procedures may be postponed or cancelled due to inadequate preoperative assessment and preparation. To minimize this problem, our preadmission anesthesia consultation clinic had been designed and managed at the outpatient department. The case referral pattern and efficacy of the clinic were evaluated for 1 year. METHODS: The study was done collected prospectively on 881 patients referred to the clinic from January to December 1997, 1 year. The age, sex, departmental distribution of consultation, ASA physical status of patients, the clinical department and reasons of consultation, and satisfaction of the patients or their parents were analized prospectively. The preoperative hospital stay periods before and after the opening of the clinic were compared. RESULTS: The sex ratio(M/F) were 6/4. Thirty-seven percent of the patients were under 10 years old and 11.8% were twenties. ENT(48.4%), ophthalmology(15.6%), general surgery(12.6%) were mainly referral departments. Reasons for consultation were related to chest X-ray abnormality(28.9% of the cases) and EKG abnormality(17.9%). The majority of consultation had pediatric(30%) and cardiologic problem(26%). URI(54.2%) and liver disease(12.6%) were major disease entities to postpone their surgery. In 2.7% of the patients, their admission or operation were postponed by the anesthesiologists in the clinic. Ninety-one percent of the patients were satisfied to visit the clinic. CONCLUSION: We conclude that reduction in preoperative hospital stay and shortening in delay of surgery are provided, and most patients are satisfied to the preadmission anesthesia consultation clinic.