| ARTICLE |
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| Year : 1998 | Volume
: 3
| Issue : 1 | Page : 27-29 |
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Merits of the pre-operative assessment of surgical patients
Fidelia N Akpa, Martina C Agbakoba
Department of Anaesthesia, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria
Correspondence Address:
Fidelia N Akpa
Department of Anaesthesia, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu
Nigeria
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
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We reviewed pre-operatively 200 adult patients (age 27 -76 years) presented for various surgical procedures at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu, to determine the incidence and nature of co-existing medical conditions that may influence the course of anaesthesia which were hitherto undetected by the primary physicians. Nineteen percent of the patients had features of intercurrent disease. Previously undetected hypertension was most prevalent with an incidence of 8%. Others were, difficult airway 2%, chronic obstructive airway disease 2%, anaemia 2%, morbid obesity 1% and alcoholism 1%.
We recommend that in view of the above findings anaesthesiologists should view the pre-operative visit as a sine-qua-non for safe anaesthesia.
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