A significant proportion of surgical patients have underlying medical diseases, highlighting the need for qualified anaesthetists and internal medicine training in anaesthesia.
May necessitate improved pre-operative assessment; leaves open impact on outcomes and training needs.
The incidence of medical diseases in surgical patients was assessed using data gathered from 5944 consecutive anaesthetics. Medical disease which might affect anaesthetic management was present in 23.2% of patients. The commonest diseases were hypertension, anaemia, chronic obstructive airway disease, diabetes mellitus, and pulmonary tuberculosis. No significant difference was detected in sex incidence for ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. There was a disproportionate preponderance of males with respiratory diseases. It is suggested that anaesthetics should be administered only by qualified anaesthetists, that the establishment of anaesthetic outpatient clinics is desirable, and that internal medicine should be included in anaesthetic training.
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M. L. YEUNG (1984) studied this question.
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