Why the study?
Does preoperative medical evaluation benefit elderly patients having elective total joint replacement surgery?
Does preoperative medical evaluation benefit elderly patients having elective total joint replacement surgery?
Preoperative medical evaluation in elderly patients undergoing elective joint replacement identifies actionable medical conditions in nearly a third of patients, including 4% requiring surgery postponement.
May identify actionable conditions in elderly joint replacement patients; hypothesis-generating without randomized outcome data.
Elderly patients having elective total joint replacement surgery are at increased perioperative risk because of comorbid conditions. To show the importance of the preoperative medical evaluation for total joint replacement, we reviewed the records of 238 patients who had screening for total joint replacement surgery in 1994. Of these 238 patients, 76 (32%) benefited from findings on the preoperative medical evaluation. Four percent of these patients were found to have a condition that warranted the postponement or cancellation of surgery, and others were found to have a condition that was immediately treatable. Some patients required referral to their primary care provider or to a specialist. This study emphasizes the importance and added benefits of the preoperative medical evaluation for elderly patients having elective total joint replacement surgery.
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Worland et al. (1996) studied this question.
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