Pre Anaesthetic Check-Up
Pre Anaesthetic Check-Up
Pre Anaesthetic Check-Up
It means the assessment of the patient prior to any surgery to see whether he/she is fit for anaesthesia.
Importance:
1) Proper Assessment
a) History about allergy, bronchial asthma, chest pain & cough.
b) Physical examination: Height, weight, pulse, BP, heart, lungs, teeth, tongue.
2) Medical check – list:
a) Cardiovascular- hypertension, angina, arrhythmias, failure.
b) Respiratory- infection, asthma.
c) Gastrointestinal- regurgitation, bowel obstruction, jaundice.
d) Metabolic- porphyria, hyperpyrexia, pheochromocytoma, steroids, diabetes.
e) Coagulation- hereditary and acquired.
f) Neurological- consciousness level, cervical instability.
3) Investigations:
a) Blood:
i) Blood for TC, DC, Hb%, ESR.
ii) Blood sugar: Fasting / Random / Post-prandial.
iii) Blood urea.
iv) Serum creatinine.
b) Urine for routine examination (R/E) for protein, sugar, casts and pus cell, Culture sensitivity is
required if there is features of UTI [ pus cells more then 5/HPF (high power field)].
c) Chest X-ray P/A view.
d) ECG (if age 40 years or more).
4) Starvation before surgery:
Four hours abstinence from food is standard practice, and should be used even with elective
regional anaesthesia and also with light intravenous anaesthesia.
Anaesthetic premedication: administration of drugs before & during operation, in addition to GA, to
make the anaesthesia safe and agreeable to the patient is called anaesthetic premedication.
5) To prevent infection (in general & pelvic ✓ 2nd / 3rd / 4th generation cephalosporin:
surgery) Cefoxitin, Ceftriaxone, Cefepime
✓ Fluroquinolones: Ciprofloxacin,
Levofloxacin, Lomefloxacin
Test Indication
Pregnancy test ➢ Needed in all cases in which patients has any chance of being
pregnant.
➢ Consent to test must be obtained.
The patients are at high risk of complications. A careful preoperative assessment of their cardiovascular,
peripheral vascular and neurological status should always be made.
Possible preoperative risk-reduction strategies may include (but are not limited to) introducing lipid-
lowering medication, improving diabetic control and treating significant vascular stenosis.
1) Preparation for minor surgery: Minor surgery in the non-insulin dependent diabetic can be
managed by simply omitting their morning dose of medication, listing them for early surgery
and restarting treatment when they start eating postoperatively.
2) Preparation for major surgery: For more significant surgery, and in the insulin dependent
diabetic: -
• An intravenous insulin infusion will be required. This should be started when the
patient first omits a meal and continued until they have recovered from the surgery.
• The plasma potassium level must be closely monitored.
• There is a risk of life-threatening lactic acidosis in patient taking metformin who are to
have contrast angiography. This drug should be discontinued 24 hours before the test
and restarted 24-48 hours afterwards.