January 8, 2019Cochrane library
Routine preoperative medical testing for cataract surgery
Why the study?
It is questionable whether medical conditions detected by routine preoperative medical testing should preclude individuals from cataract surgery or alter perioperative management.
Does routine preoperative medical testing reduce surgery-associated medical adverse events in patients undergoing age-related cataract surgery?
Comparison
Routine preoperative medical testing vs selective or no preoperative testing
Design
Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials
Authors
Discussion
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Member takes
Implication
Supports omitting routine preoperative testing before cataract surgery; reinforces evidence-based de-implementation to reduce costs.
Structured PICO
Does routine preoperative medical testing reduce surgery-associated medical adverse events in patients undergoing age-related cataract surgery?
P
Population
3 RCTs pooling 21,531 age-related cataract surgeries. Multinational (Canada, USA, Brazil, Italy).
I
Intervention
Routine preoperative medical testing
C
Comparator
Selective or no preoperative medical testing
O
Outcome
Surgery-associated medical adverse eventssafety
Routine preoperative medical testing before cataract surgery does not improve safety or reduce adverse events, but significantly increases costs.
Limitations
- lack of masking in included studies leading to potential performance and detection bias
Cite This Study
Keay et al. (2019) studied this question.